Category Archives: Bilingual Education

Question 2 and Amendment 31

One of the more underreported aspects of America’s nationwide system of state ballot initiatives is their tremendous diversity across our different states and regions.

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A National Problem and a Colorado Solution?

This Monday, we watched as the Colorado Secretary of State accepted our petitions containing the signatures of some 140,000 registered voters in support of our initiative to replace bilingual education with English programs. With just 80,000 valid signatures being necessary, … Continue reading

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Harvard’s Gary Orfield and Academic Fraud

In any society or intellectual movement there always exist those realities, often embarrassing ones, that are widely acknowledged in private but remain unspoken in public. Since these are exactly the sort of truths that seldom appear in published books or … Continue reading

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Lau vs. “Lau”

Little Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas probably ranks as the most prominent plaintiff of an eponymous Supreme Court decision in 20th Century American history, with Ernesto Miranda of Phoenix a close second (and Jane Roe disqualified from the running as … Continue reading

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Racial Hypocrisy, Right and Left

Any lingering doubts regarding the unpredictable combustibility of American racial issues have certainly been removed by the uproar that greeted my recent comments in an informal email concerning Rod Paige, George W. Bush’s Secretary of Education. Although my remarks were … Continue reading

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Liberal Massachusetts Supports Income Taxes, Gay Marriage—and “English”

For all those who might question whether Massachusetts voters are among the most liberal in the nation, the results of a recent statewide poll conducted by the Boston Herald on several proposed ballot initiatives constitutes interesting evidence. For example, American … Continue reading

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Bush Administration Denounces “English”

This last Friday, while the leadership of our English for the Children campaign was holding a press conference in Denver to tout the post-Prop. 227 test scores from California and scrambling to gather the tens of thousands of Colorado signatures … Continue reading

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Yours Truly, an Overzealous Ignoramus

Now that the last embers of Fourth of July fireworks have died down, America has entered the summer vacation months, often described by journalists as the Silly Season. As might be expected, few things better typify this description than the … Continue reading

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Bilingual Ignorance

Bilingual Ignorance, by Ron Unz Orange County Register (Letters), Sunday, June 16, 2002 I must take issue with the ignorant and rather insulting tone of Yvette Cabrera’s column on the subject of bilingualism. Ms. Cabrera wrongly characterizes me as an … Continue reading

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Is 51 Larger Than 9 or Smaller Than 9?

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Stephanie Finucane, a reporter for the San Luis Obispo Tribune, who was beginning work on a follow-up story examining the impact of Proposition 227 in her portion of California’s underreported Central Coast. Since … Continue reading

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The Decline and Rebirth of “English”—A Media Compendium

Many years from now, when the definitive educational histories of late 20th Century America are finally written, the story of “bilingual education” will certainly rank as one of the more bizarre episodes. For nearly thirty years, millions of Latino children, … Continue reading

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No New News on “English” in Colorado or California

A story in today’s Denver Rocky Mountain News trumpeted the startling fact that nothing had recently changed in the political dynamics of our forthcoming “English” initiative aimed at Colorado’s November ballot.

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Fat Ladies Singing, in English and Spanish

At some point, as all of us in America’s audience grow restless, we begin to wonder when the Fat Lady will approach the center of the stage and Sing. Yesterday’s California newspapers may have carried the first few notes of … Continue reading

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Hiding from “English” in Massachusetts

The political behavior of the opponents of our Massachusetts “English” initiative is beginning to follow an interesting, though not entirely unexpected pattern. When we first launched our campaign almost nine months ago, a prominent local politician named Jarrett Barrios quickly … Continue reading

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“English” vs. the Al Sharpton of Orange County

One of the clearest distinctions between ordinary citizens and those deeply enmeshed in political activities is their terminology. Normal people live in neighborhoods or cities, but candidates and those who help elect them live in “media-markets.”

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How Massachusetts Liberals See “English”

At times during this past half-year of our Massachusetts “English” campaign, friends have asked me what support we were receiving from the local conservative movement in that state. My response has been that he happened to be out of town … Continue reading

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“Is” Isn’t “Is” in California—Is It?

Although the populist supporters of controversial ballot measures endlessly decry the tendency of courts to temporarily block or nullify implementation, such arguments are unreasonable. Judicial review is at the heart of the American constitutional system, and if courts are permitted … Continue reading

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Parents Demand English in Korea…and Santa Ana, CA

Yesterday’s edition of the Los Angeles Times carried a long and interesting story about the enormous efforts that ambitious parents in Korea are taking to provide their children with fluency in English, the international language of opportunity and academic success. … Continue reading

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Unanimous Rules of Thumb

A few years ago California’s legislature enacted at then-Gov. Pete Wilson’s request a sweeping deregulation of our state’s energy policies. That this measure enjoyed considerable bipartisan support is something of an understatement. Not only did the bill itself, carried by … Continue reading

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New Test Clears 25% of All Convicted Felons!

Last week during the legislative hearings surrounding our proposed Massachusetts “English” initiative, local bilingual activists did their utmost to debunk reports of the enormous success of California’s previous 1998 initiative. The New York Times might have heralded California’s success in … Continue reading

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“English” Returns to Boston

This past week, as the first tender shoots of pre-Spring foliage began probing the end of New England’s winter, important public issues began simultaneously testing the end of the “media winter” inflicted by the all-engrossing consequences of the attacks of … Continue reading

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Riordan vs. Davis on “English”

In politics, words sometimes carry meaning. As we all know, candidates for high political office are notorious for hedging their remarks on controversial emotionally-charged issues, whether due to the uncertainty of their personal beliefs or the tutelage of their high-priced … Continue reading

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Meanwhile, Back in Colorado

During the past few weeks, the stunning attempt by the California State Board of Education to nullify Proposition 227—an effort from which they now appear to be back-tracking under growing media and political scrutiny—has fully occupied America’s very limited national … Continue reading

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A Witness Protection Program for the California State Board of Education?

Much of political reporting is of the “he said, she said” variety, the pairing of equally confident but contradictory quotes from either side of a contentious, complex issue. Certainly, our current dispute with the California State Board of Education over … Continue reading

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“English” vs. Gov. Gray Davis of California?

The decision late last week by California’s unelected State Board of Education to effectively nullify crucial provisions of Proposition 227 is obviously an important educational issue. That landmark 1998 initiative, which dismantled California’s system of bilingual education, has generally been … Continue reading

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