Nearly three years after the passage of California’s Proposition 227, the Central Valley school district of Madera recently witnessed one of the largest subsequent protests, as a crowd of Latinos packed a hearing of the local School Board, bringing signatures of 1,000 additional supporters. Their demand: immediate resurrection of the adult English tutoring program established by the initiative, but abandoned by the local district. Such strong and spontaneous grassroots support for “English” merely confirms national polling data on the views of Latino immigrants.
In other developments, the launch of our Denver initiative, announced just days ago, has already attracted considerable political momentum. I attach columns endorsing the measure from the Denver Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post, and a strong editorial in Investors Business Daily.
- Maderans press for adult English program
Fresno Bee, Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - Free children trapped in bilingual education by Linda Seebach
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Saturday, June 23, 2001 - Let’s say adios to bilingual education by Chuck Green
Denver Post, Friday, June 22, 2001 - Ending Bi-Illiteracy, Editorial
Investor’s Business Daily, Friday, June 22, 2001
