'English only', vast differences cited on east and west coasts - controversia sobre la educación bilingüe a nivel nacional - TA: controversy over bilingual education at a national level

Hispanic Times Magazine, August-Sept, 1998 by Jane M. Rifkin

There is a great disparity between the east and the west, and how the people of California and the people of Florida view bilingual education. While California voters have gone to the poles and voted against bilingual education in public schools, -- Miami, on the other hand, is a virtual boomtown of bilingual education.

In Miami, Florida, which is said to be the crossroads of the Americas, the consensus is that students need to be able to speak, read and write English and Spanish, in order to be viable and effective when they reach the business world. It appears to be common knowledge in Miami and surrounding areas that inhabitants who know English and Spanish earn more than those who know only English -- perhaps as much as $3,000 -- $5,000 more a year, on average.

Meanwhile, following an intense controversy, California voters went to the polls in June and voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 227, which will end most bilingual programs in that western state, and give students only about one year of special English immersion classes before placing them in the mainstream.

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

In California, fluency in English is the overriding priority. In Florida, although no one denies that English is essential, the importance of other languages -- including Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian-Creole -- are also deemed vital.

In California, many people assume that the children of immigrants can learn their native language from family while they are studying only in English in school. By contrast, many people in the greater Miami area have come forward to insist that native languages are eroded without help from the schools.

Educators in Miami, home to the first bilingual public school in the modern era, are baffled by the cultural and political fire fight which prevails over bilingual education on the other side of the United States.

In California, the tenor of the issue is for "transitional" bilingual education, a process by which students are exposed to about one year of special English classes before placing them in the mainstream classes where English-only is spoken.

A PRACTICAL MATTER

The financial well-being of the upcoming generation is the direction of the system of learning which is inherent to the Florida city which has billions of dollars of trade each year with Latin America. Business leaders there say that Miami cannot afford to do without bilingual education.

Many businesses surveyed in the south Florida districts give remedial lessons in Spanish and Portuguese to dozens of employees whose weak bilingual skills don't allow them to communicate with clients in those languages.

Teaching in two languages was fairly common in other eras of American history; but had fallen out of practice after the First World War amid a wave of nationalism and a sentiment of "English-only."

HISPANIC VS. LATINO

It is interesting to note that the term preferred in the Florida culture is "Hispanic" rather than "Latino." The demographics of the area are also a concern to business interests.

A 1995 survey of businesses in the area found that more than half the workers did at least 25 percent of their work in Spanish. Even more telling is the fact that some 95 percent of the businesses surveyed agreed on the importance of a bilingual work force.

In Dade County alone, there are 340,000 students in the public schools; it is the nation's fourth-largest district.

In Southern California, at the extreme other end of the country, where the term "Latino" is preferred in many circles, the thrust for a primarily "English-only" education appears to be motivated by cultural and political issues -- in direct contrast to the focus given in the southeast, as "a business opportunity for students to be bilingual."

California has more students with limited language skills than any other of the 50 states. Public school students number 1.4 million -- about 30 percent of them formerly enrolled in formal bilingual programs -- until the June vote to end such programs in the entire state.

COLLEGE ENROLLMENT

This change-over for California schools follows a recent proposition -- 209 -- which was passed by the voters at an earlier election -- placing a ban of affirmative action -- with widespread college enrollment implications.

A LOOK AT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

It's a sad state of affairs for California state college campuses when qualified minority students -- black and Latino -- are turned away even though they may highly qualify academically. But that was the scene when the first freshman class enrolled at the University of California's six campuses last semester.

It was the first freshman class to be accepted since Proposition 209 was passed by the voters. That proposition placed a ban on affirmative action -- prohibiting racial, ethnic and gender preferences.

Implementation of Prop 209 is causing a profound drop in underrepresented minorities -- primarily at the two most prestigious campuses -- UC Berkeley in Northern California, and UCLA in Southern California.

At UC Berkeley, 191 black students have been accepted for the incoming class, a drop of 66 percent from last year. The number of freshman who are Latino is 600, a plunge of 53 percent from last year. And, of course not all of these accepted students will actually enroll. The fall semester does not get underway until September.