Our “English for the Children of Arizona” campaign just filed 165,000 signatures to qualify its measure for the November ballot, far more than the 101,000 needed.
The Phoenix press conference at which we announced the end of the signature drive and filed the petitions again attracted an excellent turnout, including dozens of Latino immigrant parents and children from across the state, willing to take a day off work and travel for hundreds of miles to demonstrate their support, wearing “English for the Children” teeshirts and holding signs with the same message.
Local media coverage was also quite good, with seven television cameras covering the event, along with numerous print reporters. The resulting story made the front page of most of the state’s major newspapers, with a solid article in the Arizona Republic and an excellent piece by the Associated Press reporter (attached below).
With this issue on the Arizona November ballot, national politicians will have a harder time hiding from it, and there’s a high likelihood that 100,000 more immigrant children will be taught English after this November.
Along those lines, I am also attaching a good piece by John O’Sullivan, editor-at-large of National Review, regarding the difficulties which this issue potentially poses for the Bush Presidential campaign.
- Petitions filed for initiative to dismantle bilingual education
Associated Press Tuesday, June 27, 2000 - Bilingual schooling targeted
Arizona Republic, Wednesday, June 28, 2000, FRONT PAGE - Campaign 2000: ‘Me llamo Jorge W.’ by John O’Sullivan
National Review, Monday, June 19, 2000
