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Article: Bilingual education: si o no?
- Article from:
- State Legislatures
- Article date:
- December 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 National Conference of State Legislatures. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The voters in California said "enough" to bilingual education. People elsewhere say it works. The debate continues.
Can a child learn English in a class where she speaks Spanish with her friends, hears Spanish at least half the time from her teacher and does math, science and social studies in Spanish? The voters in California said no.
After 20 years of accepting bilingual education as the best way to teach non-English speakers, educators, parents and policymakers started questioning the value of the programs. They criticized them as bureaucratic boondoggies, failing the children they were designed to help. Some children stayed in bilingual classes too ...