Brown Accuses Deukmejian of Applying Racial ‘Light Test’ to Spending Items

In a rousing call to action in defense of the state’s threatened bilingual education program, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown on Friday told a meeting of 5,000 bilingual educators that strong political pressure, up to and including a “wave of sit-in demonstrations” in the governor’s office, may be necessary to keep the program alive.

Brown (D-San Francisco) also contended that Gov. George Deukmejian had put his budget to a “light test” and ended up with a spending program that favored whites at the expense of racial and linguistic minorities.

His speech was interrupted by frequent applause from the educators, most of them Latino, attending the state convention of the California Assn. for Bilingual Education in Anaheim.

Brown noted that last fall Deukmejian had vetoed Brown’s bill that would have continued the life of state-mandated bilingual teaching. The bilingual law expires June 30 unless another bill that Brown recently introduced passes before then.

The current law requires school districts to provide native-language instruction to students who are not fluent in English whenever a school has 10 or more children who speak the same language in one grade. Opponents of the law, including Deukmejian and officials of many school districts, regard this requirement as too restrictive and expensive; generally, they favor returning responsibility for bilingual education to local districts.

Brown predicted that if the Legislature approves a bilingual bill again, the governor will again veto it unless supporters of bilingual education apply pressure.

“I want to see you become so politically active that the wave of sit-in demonstrations in the governor’s office will exhaust the supply of jail space for those who may be arrested when they are ordered to be removed,” Brown said. Such demonstrations, he said, are “the confrontations that absolutely must take place . . . in the political arena over this and over issues of concern to people of this state.”

After the speech, Brown said he wasn’t advocating civil disobedience. “No, I’m not calling for that,” he said. “I’m just saying that they should come to the governor’s office, and I’m guessing that some might be arrested.”

In his speech, Brown also accused Deukmejian of making budget decisions according to the races that the programs would benefit. He used the analogy of “a light meter” that scans budget requests.

“The light test for his budget works as follows: As you look at the various programs, you run the light meter over those programs. If the light meter registers very clearly nothing, you give lots of money to those programs. If the light meter registers any color, you reduce the amount,” he said.

Brown cited cuts in the native American education program, urban impact aid--”translated into black assistance”--and bilingual education.

Informed of Brown’s accusations, Deukmejian’s assistant press secretary, Donna Lipper, replied: “The remarks attributed to the Speaker about the ‘light meter’ are so outlandish and unfortunate that we will not dignify them with a comment. In regards to the Speaker’s suggestion about sit-ins, those sorts of tactics have been counterproductive in the past, and this Administration does not do business that way.”

She said Deukmejian had vetoed Brown’s bill to extend the existing program “because the governor is concerned about the cost. . . . But Gov. Deukmejian is not opposed to bilingual education; he is very supportive of it.”

Brown said he would not allow the Assembly to pass a rival bill sponsored by Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) that would emphasize English teaching. “It will not pass,” Brown declared.