Assemblyman Offers Plan to Allow Cut in Scope of Bilingual Schooling

Setting the stage for a major battle over the state’s bilingual education program, Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) unveiled legislation Thursday that would allow school districts to reduce the scope of their instruction to non-English-speaking students.

Hill, one of the Legislature’s leading English-only advocates, said his proposal would help non-English-speaking students learn English faster by placing them earlier in classes taught only in English.

“I reject the concept of native-language instruction,” Hill told reporters at a press conference. “We want to give the flexibility to school districts to determine how they can assimilate students into an English-speaking program.”

Dismantling of System Feared

Under the state’s bilingual education law, anytime there are 10 students in a single grade who speak a language other than English, a school must provide instruction in that language while the students are learning English. There are now about 525,000 students enrolled in bilingual programs in California.

Supporters of the bilingual programs criticized Hill’s proposal, saying it would effectively dismantle the current system.

“It would pretty much eliminate bilingual education in California,” said Dale Shimasaki, education adviser to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). “You will allow districts to do whatever they want without any safeguards or accountability.”

The fight over bilingual education began in earnest last year when Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed a measure by Brown that would have extended the state’s bilingual education program beyond its scheduled expiration date of June 30.

Without a continuation of the state law, bilingual education would be operated by local school districts under much less specific federal guidelines.

In vetoing the measure, Deukmejian said he was acceding to a request from Assembly Republicans who wanted to overhaul the way the program is operated.

Now, because the state law is due to expire this year, it will take a two-thirds majority of the Legislature to pass an urgency measure extending bilingual education, thus giving far more power to GOP lawmakers, who hold 36 of the Assembly’s 80 seats.

Earlier this session, Brown introduced a measure that would extend the state’s bilingual program until 1992 and make several changes designed to appease its critics, including giving school districts some additional flexibility in running the program.

Brown issued a statement criticizing Hill’s proposal and its reliance on the method of “immersing” non-English speakers into English classes. “As we have stated repeatedly, studies show the bilingual approach is far more effective for teaching English while assuring a child continues to progress in other subjects,” the Speaker said.

Hill’s proposal, which an aide said would be introduced Monday, would also extend the state’s bilingual education law until 1992. In addition, it would:

- Remove restrictions on the types of bilingual education programs that school districts can operate.

- Require parents to give consent before their children are placed in a bilingual education program.

- Change the starting grade for bilingual programs from kindergarten to first grade.

As an alternative to placing non-English speakers into one classroom for instruction in their native language, Hill suggested that they would learn English more quickly if they were placed in English-only classes and received the help of bilingual aides who would serve as interpreters.

Hill, who was Southern California chairman of the Proposition 63 campaign, said his proposal is in keeping with the desire expressed by voters with their overwhelming approval of the initiative in November declaring English to be the state’s official language. He told reporters that he would consider it a victory if his bill ended up in a deadlock with Brown’s measure and neither received sufficient votes to win passage.

“We will have ended up with a tremendous victory in California if we do not continue the existing structure,” he said.