Category Archives: Bilingual Education

Yesterday morning’s San Jose Mercury News (Sharon Noguchi, March 20, 2009) carried a very rare report on the topic of “bilingual education.” Apparently, a decision has been made to reduce and perhaps evntually close one of the last remaining “bilingual” … Continue reading →

A couple of weeks ago, the San Jose Mercury News carried a large, photo-filled front-page “community interest” story, which caught my eye (Latino Baby Boom Changing Demographics in California, Mike Swift, July 29, 2007, Front Page). The focus was on … Continue reading →

Here’s our latest presentation of the California student test scores, based on the official numbers released by the State Department of Education. For convenience, we’ve provided a graph of the results, broken down between Limited English students in bilingual and … Continue reading →

Within political circles, it is widely recognized that the perception of political power is the largest component of political power itself. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of leaders claiming to speak on behalf of large ethnic minority or immigrant groups, … Continue reading →

Although Wednesday’s headlines were mostly dominated by the unfolding debate surrounding our likely war with Iraq, papers in a large swath of Southern California newspapers carried front-page reports of the conclusion to an equally lopsided contest, a Santa Ana vote … Continue reading →

Although Massachusetts and Colorado may not quite be exact ideological polar opposites among American states, they do come pretty close. As one of the few states in which Republicans enjoy a distinct advantage in registration, Colorado forms an important piece of … Continue reading →

This morning’s Boston Globe poll showed our “English” measure in Massachusetts still enjoying a very comfortable lead of some 27 points among voters, virtually unchanged from its 28 point lead a month earlier in the same poll. To date, we … Continue reading →

One of the rarest characteristics of any prominent individual, especially in the fields of politics, education, or the media, is the willingness to admit a mistake. To read the speeches or media commentary of our national leaders is to be … Continue reading →

Given the abysmal standards of modern political campaigning, it is certainly quite rare for major newspapers to bother devoting their lead editorials to stinging denunciations of a particular advertising campaign, using words like “lies,” “ugly distortions,” “reprehensible,” “false and inflammatory … Continue reading →

As Stalin, a leading authority on such matters, once observed, “A single death is a tragedy,  million deaths is a statistic.” This important but subtle distinction between major tragedies and mere statistics certainly arises during any examination of our decade-long … Continue reading →

An otherwise rather bland and boring—though hard-fought—election season has now been enlivened by a rather unusual spectacle. A billionaire heiress from Fort Collins, Colorado has decided to spend millions from her personal fortune funding the most intense political advertising campaign … Continue reading →

Divisive American initiative measures, especially those touching on controversial ethnic issues, almost inevitably follow a consistent pattern. First, for a year or more, the two sides wage a ferociously contested political campaign, frequently with massive funding and the political establishment … Continue reading →

The September 2, 2002 of National Review carried a cover story that tellingly revealed the utter decrepitude of today’s mainstream conservative movement. Entitled “The Best Governor in America,” the piece highlighted Colorado’s Bill Owens, a relatively obscure first-term governor from … Continue reading →

About a month ago, a prominent former political figure in Colorado who is openly sympathetic to our “English” initiative invited me to his home to meet with a group of his friends and discuss the details of the issue. These … Continue reading →

Today’s Boston Globe carried a short piece buried on page B3 that might signal the most important change in American political campaigning in one hundred years. Some months ago, the political campaign committee organized to defeat our proposed “English” initiative … Continue reading →

One subtle aspect of the political world is that lies are frequently more revealing than truths. When a politician tells the truth, he may be doing so for a wide variety of possible reasons. Perhaps he is an honest person, … Continue reading →

Although Americans frequently condemn the bipartisan cowardice and outright dishonesty of our elected officials, there is an obvious excuse for such failings. Politicians live in a hyper-Darwinian world, in which their survival is tested ever two or four or six … Continue reading →

Late Wednesday night, I returned to the Bay Area on a midnight flight from two exhausting days in Denver. Much of the time spent there was rather run-of-the- mill and typical, with an hour-long televised debate on our “English” initiative … Continue reading →