Orange Unified Seeks to End Bilingual Education Programs

Orange Unified school trustees unanimously approved a plan Thursday night to scrap bilingual education, seeking to become the largest district in California to win permission for an English-intensive curriculum.

The 7-0 vote came despite the objections of about 200 protesters who said the plan violates the rights of 4,700 students in the district who have little or no command of English. Of those, 4,200 are Spanish speakers.

The protesters, some carrying picket signs, walked in a circle outside the board room before the meeting started.

“I think it’s a racist action against the Latino community,” Sonia Reyes, an Orange mother with two children in bilingual classes, said in Spanish. “They’re trying to get rid of the Spanish language, which is our culture.”

But board members argued that they were only seeking to give the students a better education.

“I feel that if we were to continue bilingual education in this district, we’d be doing them a disservice and a grave injustice by not allowing them to become fluent in English early,” said board member Rick Ladesma.

The proposal goes to state education officials. If approved, Orange would be the largest district to win an exemption from a state requirement to teach students with limited English in their native language.

So far, only three other districts in the state have won such exemptions under a 2-year-old state policy. All are in Orange County: Magnolia and Savanna, based in Anaheim, and Westminster. But Orange, with 28,000 students, has a larger enrollment than the three others combined.

The Orange school board is often split between a conservative four-vote majority, which attacks big government, and three moderates. But Thursday night it united behind a 34-page document that asks the state Board of Education to allow teachers to cease all academic instruction in Spanish and move swiftly to a program of English immersion.

Spanish-speaking kids from kindergarten through third grade, who are now taught primarily in Spanish, would be most affected.

In addition, the district would offer extra classes--after school, in the summer, and in preschool centers--to help kids become fluent in English.

Times staff writer Nick Anderson contributed to this report.