Political Science Proposition 227 in Research Proposal

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This new law became part of California's Education Code in August, just before the beginning of the 1998-99 academic years. Since this time there has been no empirical evidence indicating there has been any benefit to language minority students from passage of Proposition 227 (Mora, 2002).

The political battle over bilingual education has only served to confuse the academic issues that are involved in educating language minority children. In California 25% of the total student population is made up of students classified as limited English proficient, or English language learners (ELL). A full 37% of the state's K-12 students speak a language other than English as their native language. Only 8% of the teaching force holds a bilingual (BCLAD) credential, however. Not all teachers that are teaching in classrooms with language minority students have the proper credentials. "In fact, 30% of teachers of limited English proficient students are not credentialed and teach under the authorization of an emergency credential" (Mora, 2002).

In examining these statistics carefully it is important to ask why so much money has been spent on eliminating a program that beforehand only served a small percentage of California's (8%) students and now serves even fewer (3%). The response to this question is deeply rooted in issues of majority/minority politics.

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And the battle over who has the power to define what it means to be American in an age of growing cultural and linguistic diversity. Unfortunately, this initiative is a clear case of political opportunism. As the anchor of the English-only movement, Proposition 227 has served as a surrogate for other social, political and economic goals, none of which are much related to improving the academic performance of language minority students (Mora, 2002).

Proposition 227 did not happen because of an outpouring of concern for language minority children in our public schools. Instead, it was manufactured as an issue to further the political ambitions of a few individuals who hoped to thrust themselves into public office by supporting a conservative cause and manipulating public opinion. Taking advantage of public fears and discriminations against language minorities and immigrants, the sponsors of 227 convinced the public that bilingual educators have only selfish motives for supporting native-language instruction. "Of course, the fact that native-English speakers have an unquestioned right to be educated in their native language in grades K-12 never seemed to cause a moment's hesitation in the minds of the monolingual majority" (Mora, 2002)......

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