Welcome the Gesture

The Mexican government’s decision to send bilingual teachers and Spanish-language books to the financially strapped Los Angeles Unified School District is a generous gesture that will benefit all involved. Los Angeles will get expert help in educating students from Spanish-speaking homes--although not nearly as much as is needed. And Mexico will get a chance to study the school reforms that are in progress here under the auspices of LEARN.

In the program announced Monday by Mexican Education Minister Ernesto Zedillo and Leticia Quesada, the president of the L.A. Board of Education, for two years starting this fall 20 Mexican teachers will work in LAUSD schools. When they return to Mexico it is hoped they will become leaders of education reform there.

Zedillo also announced the donation of 40,000 Spanish-language books to LAUSD libraries, where they will be available to students as supplementary reading material in bilingual education programs. Some offer instruction in math or other subjects; others give Spanish speakers the chance to sample such classics as “Robinson Crusoe” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in their native language.

Both programs will fill a need. LAUSD officials estimate there are 250,000 students in schools here whose primary language is Spanish. The LAUSD currently needs 2,000 more bilingual teachers. And there is a great need for Spanish reading materials to help Latino students make classroom progress as they undertake the transition to an English-speaking world. So 20 exchange teachers and 40,000 books will barely make a dent. But it’s a helpful start; that is one reason other school districts faced with similar challenges, like Santa Ana in Orange County, have expressed an interest in setting up similar exchanges with Mexico.

But while this cooperative program is to be lauded, it must not be an excuse for inaction in this country. As the head of Los Angeles’ teachers’ union, Helen Bernstein, correctly points out, U.S. school districts still have a responsibility to train and hire U.S. citizens as bilingual teachers.

Even so, such cooperative binational programs are reassuring proof that, on a local level, Mexicans and Americans can get along no matter how testy relations between Washington and Mexico City sometimes get.