By

Final Paper for Sociology

At

College

for

Professor Manfred Kuechler

All opinions are solely the opinion of the author of this report. I am not associated with any organization mentioned in this report, except being a student of Hunter college. If I have violated any laws or Internet ethics by copying some art/logos from others, I am sorry, and let me know about it.

Abstract

Early History

Implication and Cost Is a Problem

Organizations

Public Opinion

Previous Generations

Conclusion

Bibliography

Bilingual Education and English Only Laws have been in the news recently, yet the debate is very old. The goal of Bilingual Education is to help Limited English-Speaking Children enter regular English-speaking classes. No one debates the goal, it is the method of how to attain this goal that they dispute. Likewise, English Only Laws that will prohibit the government from doing any official government function in any language except English, is just as fiercely debated.

This paper addresses view points from different perspectives/organization on the issues of Bilingual Education and English Only Laws. In addition, the paper will bring statistical evidence that the American public favors Bilingual Education. Since the main objective is to teach English swiftly, within two to three years, sometimes called English As a Second Language. However, the American public is not in favor of Bilingual Education, that focuses to enhance the Limited English-speaking children knowledge of their native language, and culture.

Regarding English Only Laws, the statistics seem to say that the American pubic does not grasp the consequences of such laws. When asked if they favor English Only Laws the American public says yes. However when asked if we should print ballots in other languages (which English Only Laws would prohibit) they also say yes.

According to the National Education Association, a volunteer group consisting of people who are employed by public educational institutes, Bilingual Education has been around a long time. For example, the Continental Congress printed several documents in German. A 1837 Pennsylvania law required schools to instruct in English and German. In 1839 German and French and Spanish-speaking parents used Bilingual Education in Ohio, Louisiana and New Mexico. California was officially Bilingual for thirty years, printing the first state constitution in Spanish. The Department of Education states that Bilingual Education has been in effect for more than 200 years.

During the 1870's a backlash against Bilingualism started appearing, California past English Only Law. In the 1920's Midwestern states passed legislation barring schools from teaching German. The Nebraska Act of 1921 made English the Official language. The Supreme Court reversed many of these restrictive laws in the case (Meyer V Nebraska 1923) ⁽¹⁰⁾

Individuals who favor Bilingual Education must acknowledge, that carrying it out and costs are a problem. Spanish is the predominant language spoken among Limited English-speaking Students. Of the many languages spoken by Limited English-speaking 75% is Spanish, according the Department of Education paper Accommodating Language Diversity in Schools. If it were, the only other Language application would not be difficult.

In the same paper it states, 1,000 school districts teach in eight different languages. In addition, 40% of schools serve at least four different languages. According to the Board of Children and Families ⁽¹⁾ more than 100 languages are spoken in the New York City public schools.

Demographics can also change quickly, putting added strain on the schools. One district in California after trying to meet high standard for their Spanish-speaking children had in one decade an influx of students from Southeastern Asia swelled their population by 14,000. They did not have the necessary teacher to teach Bilingual courses. In fact, throughout the U.S. there is a shortage of certified Bilingual or ESL teachers. According to a study from the National Center for Education Statistics 38% ⁽²⁾we cannot fill position for Bilingual Educators. All these combined make the carrying out Bilingual Education that would serve all Limited English Speaking Children a problem.

Some states bear most of the burden and cost to educate Limited English Speaking. California has a 18% enrollment of Limited English-speaking Students, New Mexico 22% and New York 6%. This puts a tremendous strain on Education Departments, teachers etc. ( According the Department of Education,) the U.S. Census shows more than 1,000,000 students' ages 5-7 who are Limited English Speaking. The Department of Education estimate is much higher, 2.3 million. This number represent a 70% increase from 1984. Add to this that 50% Limited English Speaking of being immigrants and 40% are poor. A recent⁽³⁾ report (Board of Children and Families ) "on the costs of providing welfare and education to immigrants found that 5.2%, or $11.8 billion, of total 1992 federal and state expenditures for public education, Title VII bilingual education, and the National School Lunch program went to immigrants and programs that serve them. Public concerns mount when, amid financially stretched local budgets, already oversubscribed tax dollars are spent on programs for immigrant children, fueling divisive efforts to restrict immigrants' access to public services."

There has been an increase amount of criticism regarding the cost of Bilingual Education and the cost of immigrants overall. The American public perceives that immigrants are costing a great deal money. In fact, California voters recently past a bill, Propo sition 187, to bar undocumented children from school and medical benefits. This seems to go against a U.S. Supreme court ruling (Plyler V. Doe) 1982, in response to a similar law in Texas. "Texas statute which withholds from local school districts any state funds for the education of children who were not "legally admitted" into the United States, and which authorizes local school districts to deny enrollment to such children, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."

People anger might be misplaced. One cannot only look at the expenditure on immigrants. One must look at how much immigrants bring into the American economy. Most immigrant work and pay taxes. Some studies suggest that immigrants generate a surplus, report Board of Children and Families for example," a 1992 study that⁽⁴⁾ post-1969 immigrants (legal and illegal) produced a net national deficit of $29.1 billion in public assistance. However, a more recent national cost-benefit assessment found that immigrants may generate a surplus. According to that study⁽⁵⁾, immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1970 and 1992 paid $70 billion in taxes; subtracting from those taxes the estimated costs incurred by immigrants and their children for health, education, and other services, the study concluded that immigrants during that period generated a surplus of at least $25 billion to $30 billion."

Even the studies that suggest that immigrants create a surplus to the economy, distribution of the taxes they pay is a problem. Sixty-six to 75% of taxes goes to the federal government and the state and local government bears 66% to 75% of the expenditures⁽⁶⁾. This could be the reason I think, the federal government funds many programs for Education and Bilingual Education like Improving America's School Act, and Goals 2000: Education Act.

All the costs above do not include the cost of Bilingual Government forms. Fifty different languages are spoken by at least 31,500 spoken in the United States. The cost for providing ballots, and other Federal Government form would be enormous.

The statistical evidence that I gathered from the web seems to suggest that the American public favors English As a Second Language and not Bilingual Education.

In the GSS survey of 1994 two questions were concerning bilingual education.

Question: How do you feel about bilingual education?

Percent

Note all GSS statistics were done online using the Data Applications - Extract/Analyze

Question: There are several different ideas about how to teach children who don't speak English when they enter public schools. Please look at the card and tell me which statement best describes how you feel.

1. All classes should be conducted only in English so that children have to learn English right from the start.

2. Children who don't know English should have classes in their native languages just for a year two until they learn English.

3. Students who want to keep up with their native languages and cultures should be able to take as many of their classes in Spanish or other languages all the way throughout high school.

1994/ GSS	All	White	Black	Other
1 or 2 years	46.3	48.6	48.4	43.3
Classes only in English	36	37.3	29	31.7
Native throughout	15.7	14.1	22.6	25

The same would hold for all income groups.

In a poll conducted by Harris⁽⁷⁾ in 1993 the same holds true:

Question: There has been some controversy about educational methods for students whose native language is not English. Do you think government policy should promote bilingual education programs that teach English and teach other substantive subjects in a child's native language, or should policy mandate that substantive subjects be taught in English?

Responses: Government should promote teaching substantive subjects in native language/Substantive subjects should be taught in English/Not sure

1993/ Harris	Percent
English	64.3
Native	33.6
Not Sure	2.1

Harris results came directly from the University of North Carolina. The results are in a temp file.

The statistics regarding the American's public attitudes toward English Only Laws suggest that the American public really do not understand the effect of these very laws. When asks if they favor English Only Laws the American public overwhelmingly say yes? Yet, when asks if we should print a voting ballot in other languages, the very thing English Only laws would outlaw, they overwhelmingly approve.

From a 1994 GSS survey:

Question: Do you favor a law making English the official language of the United States, meaning government business would be conducted in English only, or do you oppose such a law?

1994/ GSS	percent
Favor	62.8
oppose	27.6
Neither Favor or oppose	9.7

Question: Do you believe that election ballots should be printed only in English, or in areas where lots of people don't speak English, should they also be printed in some other languages?

1994/ GSS	Percent
Printed in Some other language	63.2
Printed only in English	36.8

From the previous survey one should not concur that people who come to this country should not try hard to learn English. On the contrary, the American public feels that emigrants have an obligation to learn English. Nevertheless, do not think the American public is mean spirted, they also say emigrants have a right to learn English.

From a 1984 GSS Survey:

Question: We all know that Americans have certain rights. For example, they have a right to free public education and to police protection, the right to attend religious services of their choice and the right to elect public officials.

I'd like to ask now about certain obligations that some people feel American's citizens owe their country. I just want your own opinion on these whether you feel ___________________ that a citizen owes this country.

1984/GSS	Percent
Very important obligation	83
somewhat important obligation	13.8
not an obligation	2.7

1990 Harris poll:

Now let me ask you if you feel that all people have the following rights under our system of government here in the United States?

Item: The right for a person whose family speaks another language to learn English

Responses: Have this right/Don't have this right/not sure

1990/Harris	Percent
Have this right	87.20
Don't have this right	6.00
not sure	6.80

The statistics implies that people do not have a problem in helping people learn English but the American population do want immigrants to learn English.

.

All these organizations quote several studies that confirming their views, whether Bilingual Education, or English as a Second is more effective. Whether English Only Laws, will help, bring the races together or divide the country. One must recognize, that all these organizations will allude to studies that support their views and criticize the studies that do not support their views. All organizations have biases even The Department of Education and Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs. Bilingual Education calls for more jobs. Each will say that the Supreme Court decision of 1974 in the ⁽¹¹⁾case, Lau v. Nichols Supreme Court Decision. , support their view. The court did not state how to create equal education, just create equal education opportunity.

a volunteer group consisting of people who are employed by public education institutes, states in a paper The Debate Over English Only "The National Education Association recognizes the importance of an individual's native language and culture and the need to promote and preserve them through instruction, public service announcements, and all other forms of communication. "

"The Association believes that, although English is the language of political and economic communication in the United States, efforts to legislate English as the official language disregard cultural pluralism; deprive those in need of education, social services, and employment, and must be challenged."

The National Education Association does have informative information on their web site. However, they do try a little too hard to scare people about English Only Laws. In their paper The Debate Over English Only, they write that U.S. spies will be breaking the English Only Law if they talk to their informant in any language besides English.

They also claim that U.S. English, and English First are associated with the anti-immigrant groups. Such as Committee to Preserve the Family U.S. Border Control and Council on INTER-American Security and Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs

"Established in 1974 by Congress, the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs helps school districts' meet their responsibility to provide equal education opportunity to Limited English proficient children."

Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act in 1968 in recognition of the growing number of linguistically and culturally diverse children enrolled in schools who, because of their limited English proficiency, were not receiving an education equal to their English-proficient peers. The purpose of this Act was, and continues to be, aligned with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964which the Department interprets as follows:

Provide equal education opportunity to limited English proficient children "Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin minority group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students."

Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs also states that Bilingual Education is not only to teach English but also to try to enhance the self esteem of Limited English Students by enhancing their own native language skills while they learn English. One such study that they quote is a paper on the Web site of The National Clearing House for Bilingual Education that the Office of Bilingual Education has funded titled, Bes t Evidence: Research Foundation of the Bilingual Education Act by James Crawford. This study is very comprehensive, and addresses all the issues that organizations that are against Bilingual Education ask. Another study is BILINGU ALISM AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION: A RESEARCH Perspec tive by Kenji Hakuta, states "The native language and the second language are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Further, native language proficiency is a powerful predictor of the rapidity of second language development".

The goals of this organization are not the issue, it is the means that they use to attain the goal with which the next group of organization has a problem.

U.S. English, English First seem more concerned about making English the official language. Center for Equal Opportunity(run by the former President on U.S. English) seems more interest in Bilingual Education. They mention a study in CA. That says bilingual Education is a total failure by the⁽⁸⁾ Little Hoover Commission,. "The State Department of Education's emphasis on native-language instruction is inappropriate, unwarranted, not feasible and counterproductive."

"U.S. ENGLISH is the largest national, non-partisan, non-profit citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the

United States. Its efforts support making English the official language of government at all levels and encourage immigrants to learn English, allowing them to enjoy the economic opportunities available in this country."

U.S. English favors English Only bills to make English the official language of the United States. Still, they do not oppose English As a Second Language programs. They are against funding for Bilingual Education. Maybe they just feel that immigrants are in an English-speaking country, learn English. Maybe, they truly might feel by forcing people to speak English. By doing that everybody would benefit, the immigrant and the country as a whole. Maybe, they are anti immigrant. I do not know.

"English First is a national, non-profit grassroots lobbying organization founded in 1986. Our goals are simple: Make English America's official language. Give every child the chance to learn English. Eliminate costly and ineffective multilingual policies."

English First is another organization that is not in favor on Bilingual Education. An emigrant Mauro E. Mujica is runed this organization. He might honestly feel that it is a benefit that immigrants learn English as early as possible so they can exceed in anything they want to, as he did. They also favor English Only Laws like, HR 351, HR 739, HR 622, HR123, HR 1005. They favor ESL and not Bilingual Education. All these bill either making English as an official language, and restricting the Government on doing official Government business only in English. Most of the bills do have an exemption for the elderly and children. Congressman Robert Underwood addressed the congress on November 28, 1995 in response to these English Only bills he says they are divisive and wrong, and would cause many legal problems.

Center for Equal Opportunity is run by Linda Chavez ⁽⁹⁾. They have links' articles to promote ESL and not Bilingual Education. In the Article One Nation, One Common Language she claims that they put Hispanic students into Bilingual classes at a higher percentage than other Limited English-speaking children. For example, Russian, and Chinese students are in ESL classes so the Russians and Chinese enter mainstream English Classes faster. Because of this the Hispanics, are at a disadvantage. I guess this is where she got the name she wants Equal Opportunity but feels that they are getting the short end even in school. She explains how a good thing to teach Spanish children English has turned into "group rights " of minorities, to learn their native language. Center for Equal Opportunity publishes in Spanish a guide, how to get your children out of Bilingual Education. They also provide an 800# on how to get your children out of Bilingual education.

Center for Equal Opportunity brings a study from New York that (they do not qualify it, but they e:mailed me the name of the study "The Educational Progress of Students in Bilingual and English as a Second Language Programs." The Chancellor of the New York City Schools issued it on October 14, 1995) a study that Spanish and Haitian students were in Bilingual Education, being taught many of their courses in the native language. Chinese, Korean and Russian were mainly taught in English, English as a Second Language. The students in the English as a Second Language moved faster into English Only classes, as opposed to those students in Bilingual Education. In addition, they were doing better in school in reading and writing.

The study and analysis are flawed, even if the results are true. To test truly whether Bilingual Education or English as a Second is more effective, one needs to start with a random sample. This means, that the group of students in the Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language are essentially the same. In the above study the groups were divided by ethnic groups from different background's. This could cause the deviation in education level and not the program itself. In addition "There is mounting evidence that immigrant youths perform at least as well academically and may stay in school longer than their U.S.-born majority-group peers of similar class backgrounds. Indeed, in spite of often difficult circumstances, such as those experienced by refugee children who come to the United States from war-torn nations, some immigrant children even exceed the academic norms of U.S.-born native English speakers from advantaged environments." (NAC) But other immigrant students perform less well, fueling public stereotypes about specific immigrant groups. Aggregate national statistics, particularly those that document lower achievement levels for Hispanic immigrant students... If Hispanics immigrant do poorly the fact that they did not do well in Bilingual education does not mean much.

Many people argue that previous generation that did not have all these Bilingual Education classes and mufti Lingual did just fine. First, there is some evidence that the previous generation did not do as well as people think. According to a study from National Association of Bilingual Education as reported by National Education Association, in 1890 children of foreign-born parent were three times more likely to drop out of high school. However, even if they were a success, the comparison is not fair to today's emigrants. Today's world, and economic environment are vastly different then years ago. In today's economic environment high paying blue collar jobs are not growing. College/education is more important then previous generations.

In conclusion, they will not resolve their debate concerning English Only Laws and Bilingual Education any time soon. Both sides of the debate are entrenched in their views. Both sides are dealing with a believe system, how to bring equal Education to Limited English Speaking Children as ordered by the Supreme court in Lau v. Nichols Supreme Decision. Both sides have studies that support theirs believe systems. Since they can criticize every study. For example, they the students did not have the same teachers, they came from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Because of these questions, empirical evidence is very hard to come by. In addition, to see if any program is really effective, they need to make longitude studies in the different programs and these are always a problem since the environment of the subjects will not be the same.

Nevertheless, on the opinion on the American public I can be sure. The American public favors English as a Second Language and not in favor of Bilingual Education. Concerning the issue of English Only Laws, while they say they favor such laws, they convinced me they really have not understand the full impact of such laws. Still, it does seem the American public fully expect immigrants to put a great deal of effort into learning English.

Board of Children and Families, Immigrant Children and Their Families:

Issues for Research and Policy1

http://www.futureofchildren.org/cri/06cri.htm

California Secretary of State, 1994 California Voter Information: Proposition 187. Text of Proposed Law

http://ca94.election.digital.com/e/prop/187/txt.html

Center for Equal Opportunity Home page and a paper The Politics of Bilingual Education Revisited.

http://www.ceousa.org/multic.html

Department of Education Model Strategies in Bilingual Education: Professional Development

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ModStrat/index.html

English First

http://www.englishfirst.org/

Find Law

http://www.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=c ase&vol=457&invol=202

GSS Home page

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/

Institute for Research in Social Science Public Opinion Poll Question Database, University of North Carolina

http://www.irss.unc.edu/data_archive/pollsearch.html

The National Clearing House for Bilingual Education BEST EVIDENCE: Research Foundations of the Bilingual Education Act by James Crawford

http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/ncbepubs/reports/bestevid.html

National Education Association: The Debate Over English Only

http://www.nea.org/info/engonly.html

Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs

http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/obemla/obemla.html

Thomas legislation Information

http://rs9.loc.gov/home/thomas.html

U.S. English

http://www.us-english.org/

White House Congressman Robert A. Underwood English-Only Legislation November 28, 1995

http://www.house.gov/underwood/english.htm

Endnotes

1. The Board on Children and Families was established in 1993 under the joint aegis of the

National Research Council's Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

and the Institute of Medicine. The board serves as a permanent and visible locus for

promoting a more effective alliance between those who produce scientific knowledge about

Children and families and those who use it to shape policies and programs. Go Back

2. The Department of Education did not name the study. Go Back

3. McDonnell, L.M., and Hill, P.T. Newcomers in American schools: Meeting the educational

needs of immigrant youth. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1993. Go Back

4. Passel, J.S. Immigrants and taxes: A reappraisal of Huddle's "The cost of immigrants."

Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, January 1994. Go Back

5. Clark, R.L., Passel, J.S., Zimmerman, W.N., and Fix, M.E. Fiscal impacts of

undocumented aliens: Selected estimates for seven states. Washington, DC: Urban Institute,

September 1994. Go Back

6. Board of Children and Families, Frank D. Bean, Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Workshop discussion. Go Back

7. All Harris polls results came from University of North Carolina of Chapel Hill. A search needs to be made using their query. Choose Harris polls and just search for a few words from the question. Go Back

8. This web site is very web/paper with no bookmarks long scroll down a page or two to abstract. Go Back

9. In addition to serving as president of U.S. English, Linda Chavez was a Republican nominee for

the U.S. Senate in Maryland and staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 1985,

she was the highest ranking woman on the White House Staff, serving as director of public liaison. for President Reagan. Go Back

10. "That the state may do much, go very far, indeed, in order to improve the quality of its citizens, physically, mentally and morally, is clear; but the individual has certain fundamental rights which must be respected. The protection of the Constitution extends to all, to those who speak other languages as well as to those born with English on the tongue. Perhaps it would be highly advantageous if all had ready understanding of our ordinary speech, but this cannot be coerced by methods which conflict with the Constitution-a desirable and cannot be promoted by prohibited means."Go Back

11. "Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national

origin-minority group children from effective participation in the educational program

offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language

deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students."Go Back