Key Links 

No on Unz (defunct)
National Association for Bilingual Education
Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research
MALDEF
English for the Children (defunct)

Issues in U.S. Language Policy

"End bilingual education in California by June 1998." That's the slogan of a new ballot initiative entitled English for the Children. It could become a reality unless an effective opposition can be mounted.

In November 1997, California's Secretary of State certified that anti-bilingual activists had collected at least 510,796 petitions from registered voters – more than enough to qualify the measure for the June 2 primary ballot. The campaign is led by Ron Unz, a Republican candidate for governor in 1994 and a multimillionaire software developer, who plans to dig deep into his own pockets and spend whatever it takes to get the measure passed.

If he succeeds, the results could prove disastrous for California's 1.4 million students with limited English skills. Though confusing and poorly drafted, the Unz initiative will benefit from public misunderstanding of bilingual education – its rationale, methods, goals, and results – and from a climate of xenophobia that has dominated the state's politics in recent years. 

Yet Ron Unz is not just another immigrant-basher. To the contrary, he made a name for himself as a conservative opponent of Proposition 187. His Only-English campaign is targeting California's Latino communities, capitalizing on discontent with the public schools and seeking to make bilingual education the scapegoat. Expensive ads promotiong the initiative are appearing in Spanish-language media. Some alleged advocates for immigrant rights, along with a few Asian and Latino politicians, have already signed on.

Nevertheless, in a recent fundraising letter, Unz did not hesitate to exploit crude ethnic stereotypes. He compared today's Spanish speakers unfavorably to his own Jewish grandparents, "who came to California in the 1920s and 1930s as poor European immigrants. They came to WORK and become successful . . . not to sit back and be a burden on those who were already here!" (Los Angeles Times, 31 August 1997).

Cochair of the initiative is Gloria Matta Tuchman, a 1st grade teacher from Santa Ana and another would-be politician – who finished 5th in the 1994 race for state superintendent of public instruction. While eager to advertise her Mexican American roots, Tuchman has been less forthcoming about her ties to the English Only movement. She joined the U.S. English board of directors in 1989 – shortly after the scandal over its founder's scurrilous memo about Latinos – and served until 1992.

So far, however, this campaign remains independent of the established English Only groups. Its agenda is even more extreme than their attacks on bilingual education over the years. At minimum, the initiative would:

• outlaw the use of languages other than English to instruct any student in California public schools, except under limited circumstances – a restriction that harkens back to Meyer v. Nebraska;
• dismantle successful programs that not only teach English but also keep children from falling behind in other subjects while they acquire valuable bilingual skills;
• impose an unproven pedagogical approach – "sheltered English immersion ... not normally intended to exceed one year" – without regard for the expertise of educators or the wishes of local school boards;
• violate children's civil rights, as guaranteed by Lau v. Nichols, to receive effective help in overcoming language barriers that impede their access to the curriculum;
• deny parental choice by restricting waivers to the English-only rule to older or "special needs" students, and even then failing to guarantee that native-language instruction would be available;
• limit options for English-speaking students to learn another language, by requiring them to score above grade level in English to receive a waiver;
• destroy what is widely hailed as the most effective language-learning model for English- and non-English-speaking students alike – two-way bilingual education;
• invite civil lawsuits to enforce the English Only mandate and hold teachers and administrators personally liable for such "crimes" as using another language in class; and 
• stimulate yet another round of ethnic conflict in California, already polarized by anti-immigrant and anti-affirmative-action Propositions 187 and 209.

Commentaries on the Unz Initiative

James Crawford
Concern or Intolerance: What's Driving the Anti-Bilingual Campaign?
San Jose Mercury News, 31 May 1998 
The Ninth Street Myth: Who Speaks for Latino Parents?
Hispanic Link News Service, 25 May 1998 (en español)
Analyzing the Impact of Unz
Responding to Unz-Supported Claims

Stephen Krashen, University of Southern California
A Researcher's View of Unz
The Unz Tuchman Proposal: A Bad Idea
Notes on the Unz Attack
The Dropout Argument
Why Bilingual Education?
A Note on Greene's "Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education"
Letter to the Los Angeles Times, 25 May 1998 

John Espinoza, Los Angeles Unified School District
Memo from a Bilingual Teacher
   En defensa de la educación bilingüe

Jack D. Forbes, University of California, Davis
Does Prop. 209 Deliver a Knock-Out Blow to "English Only"?

Olga Amaral, San Diego State University, and Emily Palacio, Calexico Unified School District
Please Vote No on Proposition 227

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Preliminary Section-by-Section Analysis of the Unz Initiative

Council of Great City Schools
Implications and Costs of the Unz Initiative

Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Bilingual Education: A Tool for Equal Opportunity

California Church IMPACT
Moral Response: Public Statement on Prop. 227

Resolutions Opposing Prop. 227

• American Educational Research Association
• American Association for Applied Linguistics
• Linguistic Society of America
• Los Angeles School Board
• National Hispanic Leadership Agenda
• Santa Ana School Board 



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• Helping Children Learn English
Statement by U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley 
• Questions and Answers on Secretary Riley's Statement
• Research Findings regarding schooling for limited English proficient students
• Facts about limited English proficient students

Political Fallout

Delay Bill Would End Federal Support of Bilingual Education – With his proposed "English for Children Act," House Republican leader would cut school aid for English instruction.
Houston Chronicle, 22 April 1998.

Press Criticism

The Bilingual Education Story: Why Can't the News Media Get It Right? – Presentation to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists by James Crawford.

New Media Alliance Study Finds Ommissions in California Media Coverage of Proposition 227 – Independent watchdog group analyzes reporting by three major California newspapers and concludes that "reporters didn't visit classrooms or evaluate the effectiveness of bilingual education."

He Says, She Says: How California's Major Papers Have Covered Prop. 227 – For journalists, this is a political story, not an education story.
Media File, May/June 1998

Media Alliance Toolkit for Bilingual Activists – Many resources for fighting Prop. 227, including an extensive contact list of journalists in California.

Online Discussions

English Lessons: The Bilingual Debate – Online forum sponsored by the San Jose Mercury News

Get Rid of Bilingual Education in Schools? – Online forum sponsored by the Contra Costa Times

How to Respond to English-Only Initiatives, with James Crawford – April 21- 27, 1998. Follow-up to an online chat session sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems

Debates

• David Ramírez & Lydia Stack vs. Ron Unz & Gloria Tuchman
• "Double Talk?" – Ron Unz, chairman of English for the Children, vs. Jim Lyons, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education, on the PBS "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," 15 September 1997.
• On-Line Forum – Viewer reaction to the News Hour debate, with responses from Unz and Lyons.

Study Guide

A Critical Look at the Unz Initiative: "English for the Children," by Prof. Lois M. Meyer, Department of Elementary Education, San Francisco State University – A thought-provoking analysis for use in teacher-training courses.

Poetry

• Poem to Mr. Ron Unz Who Preaches English-Only As the Answer 

by Margot Kelley
• The Snake Oil Salesman

by Ken Konviser

News Archives on Prop. 227

May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
1997

Editorial Archives on Prop. 227

May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
1997

What Research Says about Bilingual Education

• A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education, by Jay P. Greene, University of Texas at Austin – New review of the literature takes a more rigorous approach to research cited by Rossell and Baker, with dramatically different results: LEP students in bilingual education significantly outperformed their counterparts in English-only programs. Just released by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute.
• A Note on Greene's "Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," by Stephen Krashen, University of Southern California – Greene's study "should have a profound impact on the field." While the meta-analysis reports positive findings for bilingual education, it still may have underestimated the benefits.
• Bias in Polls on Bilingual Education: A Demonstration, by Stephen Krashen, James Crawford, and Haeyoung Kim – Different questions yield different opinions on the Unz initiative.
• Beyond Adversarial Discourse: Searching for Common Ground in the Education of Bilingual Students, by Jim Cummins – Presentation to the California State Board of Education in response to Christine Rossell, Keith Baker, Rosalie Porter, and other academic critics of bilingual education.
• Bilingual Education: A Focus on Current Research, by Stephen Krashen 
• Myths and Misconceptions About Second Language Learning (Digest),
by Barry McLaughlin
• Evaluation of English Language Development Programs in the Santa Ana Unified School District, 
by Douglas E. Mitchell, Tom Destino, and Rita Karam

Videos Now Available

James Crawford vs. Ron Unz: Debate on Prop. 227
Santa Rosa, California
March 31, 1998

90 minutes; $15 postpaid; checks payable to:
Dr. Guillermo Rivas
Sonoma County Office of Education
5340 Skylane Blvd. 
Santa Rosa, CA 95403

Proposition 227: 
How Will It Affect Our Children?
12-minutes; designed to help inform the public about the potential impact of the Unz initiative 
Teacher Roundtable: 
Language, Learning and Proposition 227
30 minutes; for house meetings, group discussions, workshops, or anyone interested in teachers' perspective on bilingual education and the Unz initiative.

Links

• Citizens for an Educated America – Official No on Unz campaign home page (defunct).
• "English for the Children" – Official web site of the Only English initiative, sponsored by Ron Unz's organization One Nation/One California (defunct).
• Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research – University of Southern California site maintains an extensive collection of resources on language policy, including press coverage of bilingual education and Prop. 227.
• SmartNation: Language, Literacy, and Cultural Tolerance for All Children – Arguments and information to counter the anti-bilingual initiative (defunct).
• Media Alliance Toolkit for Bilingual Activists – Many resources for fighting Prop. 227, including an extensive contact list of journalists in California.
• Pajaro Valley Coalition for an Educated America – Local no on 227 organizing campaign.
• Proposition 227 Conference – Second Language Acquisition Institute, University of California, Davis
• The Sacredness of Language: What's at Stake in the Bilingual Education Debate? – Public forum at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
• Bilingual Education Network (BiEN!) – California Department of Education site devoted to the needs of linguistic and culturally diverse students; excellent introduction to bilingual education in California.
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund – One of the leading organizations in defending minority language rights in the U.S.A.
• National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) – Features extensive analysis of the Unz initiative and its potential impact.
• California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) – Offers a wealth of information about California programs and politics.
• Voice of Citizens Together – Far Right opponents of the Unz initiative.

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