ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Battle of Words

Proposition 187, cutting off benefits to illegal immigrants, was divisive last year. Now attacks on the worth of bilingual education programs are prompting unhelpful quarrels among trustees of two school districts, Westminster and Anaheim Union.

The question of how best to teach students who show up at the school door speaking only Spanish, Vietnamese or any of dozens of other languages heard in Orange County is a valid one. So is whether teachers must know a language other than English to teach bilingual classes, or whether teachers’ aides can do the job. But the rhetoric in the renewed debate on the issue needs to be toned down.

The Westminster and Anaheim boards were independently discussing the same resolution. It denounced the state Education Department for specifying how bilingual education should be conducted, and it questioned the efficacy of the entire program. The resolution passed in Westminster but was delayed in Anaheim. It should be defeated.

The resolution implies that teaching should be conducted only in English. That is wrong. It makes no sense to have bewildered students sitting in classrooms and learning nothing while they struggle to absorb a new language. Those dropping out because of frustration would be condemned to joining a separate underclass in society.

True, somewhere along the line English must be learned. We do not want cultures Balkanized on the basis of language. But to the extent possible, pupils need to be helped along the road, which is what bilingual education is doing.