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BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Native Culture or Larger Culture?

The Supreme Court case of Lau v. Nichols in 1974 affirmed the concept of language rights when a group of Chinese students in San Francisco demanded, and won, instruction in their native language. This case marked an official recognition of multilingualism in the United States. Schools were required to offer the curriculum in a manner understandable to the non-English-speaking child. The federal BiLingual Education Act, which had been in effect since 1967, had as its primary goals "cultivating ancestral pride, reinforcing native languages, and cultivating inherent strengths of students." However, during the decades following the Lau decision, two competing philosophies of bilingual instruction emerged. In the early days, the goal was successful integration of the students into the culture as a whole; the competing view that emerged during the 1970s was promotion of cultural differences as a valid educational goal. Advocates of the first philosophy believed students should be taught English in immersion programs as quickly as possible so that they may better succeed in other subjects that are taught in English; the other advocates believed students should be taught all of their subject-matter classes in their native language.

Politics and Bilingual Instruction

During the 1980s a furor erupted over funding instruction in native languages when the Reagan administration expressed real concern that some bilingual programs based on the cultural-difference model were failing to help students enter the larger culture. President Reagan's education secretary, William J. Bennett, denounced the cultural-difference model and suggested that all bilingual education change to conform to the short-term immersion program. Because Reagan proposed amendments to the federal Bi-Lingual Education Act, the National Advisory and Coordinating Council on Bi-Lingual Education undertook a comprehensive study of programs nationwide. Their report, which was not issued to Congress until 1988, stated that the instructional quality and comprehensiveness in meeting student needs was significantly more important that any particular method or philosophy. In some settings one approach was successful but the same approach elsewhere was not effective. The best programs were judged to be those taught by teachers linguistically and culturally sensitive who maintained high expectations of the students. Bennett's successor in the Bush administration, Lauro Cavazos, a native speaker of Spanish himself, similarly supported the immediate teaching of English. However, he emphasized that the children should also be encouraged to maintain their native language and culture.

Spanish as First Language

The debate on bilingual instruction took on greater significance in the 1980s as the percentage of households with Spanish as a spoken language grew. By 1982, 7.5 million Mexican Americans and 16 million Hispanics made up the largest American ethnolinguistic group: 30 percent of the population in New York City, 32 percent in Miami, 35 percent in both Hartford and Denver, 50 percent in Los Angeles, and 60 percent in both San Antonio and El Paso. The number of Hispanics judged in need of spoken-language assistance in school was estimated to be 3.6 million in 1981. These students progressed through school at an average of two to three levels behind their peers; Hispanic unemployment was more than double that of the rate for whites; and annual income of Hispanics averaged $12,600 in the late 1970s whereas that of whites averaged $17,600. Clearly, improvements in education for this segment of the population were needed. Additionally, there was a big demand for bilingual instruction for the estimated 1.7 million immigrant Hispanics attempting to fulfil the second stage of immigration legalization. In order to receive citizenship, applicants must present to the Immigration and Naturalization Service a certificate of satisfactory pursuit of English language acquisition. The state or local school districts were obligated to provide classes for these non-native speakers as well as for enrolled students. Thus, if for no other reason than to facilitate immigration, funding for bilingual programs in the 1980s remained steady, despite Reagan administration efforts to cut expenditures.