• Blamed bilingual education for the increasing enrollments of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in California.
• Charged that the state's bilingual programs had a "95 percent annual failure rate," based (loosely) on the percentage of English learners – whether in bilingual classrooms or not – who "failed" to become fluent in English each year.
• Promised that "structured English immersion" – an English-only program "not normally intended to exceed one year" – would speed up the acquisition of English.
• Insisted that Proposition 227 would "eliminate" bilingual education in California and that language-minority parents would embrace English-only immersion programs.

Language Census figures from the California Department of Education (CDE) show that since Proposition 227 took effect on August 2, 1998:

• Only 590,289 English language learners -- just 42 percent of the total in 1998 -- have become proficient in English. In other words, after five years of Proposition 227, three out of five children this law was designed to help remain limited in English!!!
• Meanwhile, LEP enrollments have grown by 193,376 – or nearly 14 percent – statewide.
• Annual "redesignation rates" – LEP students' rates of English acquisition – remain basically unchanged.
• At least 141,428 English learners remain in fully bilingual classrooms at parents' request.
• More than half a million of these children have been "mainstreamed" and now get little or no special help, even though they remain LEP.

Meanwhile, Proposition 227 has clearly broken its promise to teach students English within one year. Last year only about one in 13 LEP students were redesignated as fluent-English proficient (FEP).  And many of these students had already been in language programs for more than one year. 

By Ron Unz's own standard, as articulated during the 1998 campaign, Proposition 227 had a "failure rate" of more than 92% last year.

As shown below, California's statewide "redesignation rate" increased only slightly (seven 10ths of one percent) between 1998 and 2003, continuing a trend that began in the early 1990s – long before passage of the English-only initiative. For the past two years the redesignation rate has declined.
 

How has Proposition 227 changed the way English learners are taught in California? As shown in the table below:

• The percentage of students receiving bilingual education (ELD & L1 instruction) has declined and the percentage receiving varieties of English-only instruction (especially ELD & SDAIE) has increased. 
• Yet a substantial number of English learners continue to receive bilingual instruction because parents are taking advantage of the law's "waiver" process to choose this option for their children. Last year 141,428 were enrolled in fully bilingual classrooms and 342,128 were receiving  native-language support while they learned English.

The table above, however, does not tell the whole story. Beginning in 1998-99, the CDE created new program categories conforming to the post-227 environment. Using this revised method, school districts are reporting larger enrollments in "structured English immersion" (SEI) programs and also in English-only "mainstream" classrooms. Last year there were 592,837 LEP students who apparently received little or no special help, a potential civil rights violation.