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Bilingual Balderdash
Editorial
Wall Street Journal
Friday, October 11, 2002
Four years after Californians voted to all but scrap "bilingual
education," the results are remarkable. The share of Hispanic
students scoring above the median in math tests is now 46%, up from
27%. The number scoring above the median in reading is now 35%, up
from 21%. You'd think this evidence would cause other states to
oppose this form of ethnic separatism, but too many politicians are
dodging the issue.
This year's battlegrounds on bilingual education -- a euphemism for
Spanish-only instruction in most places -- are Massachusetts and
Colorado. Both will vote next month on initiatives that would move
students into English-immersion programs unless their parents request
a waiver. In the liberal Bay State, the moderate GOP candidate for
governor, Mitt Romney, supports English immersion. But ironically in
Colorado, conservative GOP Governor Bill Owens has sided with an
education lobby that wants to prop up this failed teaching tool.
In Massachusetts, the reform effort is being led by Lincoln Tamayo, a
Cuban immigrant and former inner-city school principal. Mr. Romney is
highlighting the issue in his TV ads. "English is the door to
opportunity in America," he said in a recent debate. "If our children
cannot speak English fluently, it robs them of their ability to
compete for jobs."
Backers of bilingual ed have denounced Ron Unz, the California
businessman who is spearheading the national bilingual debate, as
"hateful" and "spiteful." Gerardo Villacres, director of the state's
Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce, said last month, "Half of the
words in his name says Nazi on it, and that says a lot." Charming
fellow, Gerardo.
Mr. Unz can be annoying or worse, but he's right on this issue and
the extreme reaction against him is explained by the bilingual
lobby's fear that their expensive 30-year-old gravy train will end.
"Their message to middle-class Hispanics is to incorrectly claim that
Unz is trying to wipe out Spanish and extinguish a distinctive Latino
culture," says California parent Martha Montelongo; she adds that
even after such scare tactics 40% of Hispanics voted to end bilingual
education in both California and Arizona.
That level of Hispanic support has convinced bilingual backers that
they can win only if they scare middle-class whites. In 1998, their
efforts failed in California even after a $1.5 million donation from
the owner of the Spanish-language Univision TV empire. This year
liberal heiress Pat Stryker has donated an astonishing $3 million to
defeat the Unz initiative in Colorado. That's the TV-time equivalent
of $25 million in California.
The heiress's money has paid for a slew of TV ads with doomsday music
that claim "Amendment 31 will knowingly force children who can barely
speak English into regular classrooms, creating chaos and disrupting
learning." The Rocky Mountain News's "Ad Watch" called the veiled
warnings about a swarming immigrant horde "inexcusable." Where are La
Raza, Maldef and the other self-styled Hispanic lobbies in response
to this demagoguery? They don't seem to mind anti-immigrant innuendo
as long as it helps preserve bilingual ed booty.
The flood of money and TV ads in Colorado has apparently spooked
Governor Owens, a popular conservative who's otherwise getting lots
of good press, including in these columns. Mr. Owens believes the
U.S. needs a common language, but he is opposing Amendment 31 on the
technical grounds that it allows parents to sue school officials if
they don't enforce the law. Mr. Owens calls this "a fatal flaw," but
in California no such lawsuits have been filed since the Unz
initiative passed.
In Massachusetts, Mr. Romney has also expressed concern about the
lawsuit provision but still backs the initiative. He says he will
work with the legislature to modify it once it passes. It's sad to
see Mr. Owens pander to Hispanic lobbies and avoid a debate on the
failures of bilingual education. If the initiative is defeated, the
losers will be the 70,000 children now trapped in Colorado's
bilingual programs.
It's sometimes difficult to separate those who support a common
language that helps to undergird a common national culture -- the
classic view of those of us who back assimilation -- from those who
harbor animosity to more immigrants. Both will be attacked by ethnic
separatists who want to squelch debate. We think the voters can sort
out the difference and make the right call in Massachusetts and
Colorado, much as they've already done in Arizona and California.
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