Bilingual Education
Re “Battle Heats Up Over Bilingual Education,” April 8:
From the vehemence of its opponents, you’d think AB 2310 (from Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, R-Los Olivos) would ban bilingual education. In fact, all the bill would do is establish testing to see if bilingual programs work and provide flexibility to try other methods if the bilingual approach is failing. It tells a lot about bilingual proponents that they fight this hard just to keep the public from knowing if the program is working.
In Los Angeles Unified, as things stand now, you’d need the Freedom of Information Act to find out how many kids, at each grade level, are succeeding in the bilingual program. The Firestone bill would correct that.
As for the charge that opponents of bilingual education are involved in some kind of cultural suppression: Read the papers! The people marching in the street against bilingual education are Hispanic parents who want their children to learn English.
DOUGLAS LASKEN
Woodland Hills
* Native-language instruction is a loser, a pipe dream. The tail wagging the dog.
FELIX CASTRO
Los Angeles
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