Community Tutoring Provision in Prop. 227

Ron Unz in Prop. 227 claims that one year (180 days) of English immersion classroom instruction is enough to prepare English learners for mainstream academic classrooms. Then why $50 million a year for 10 years to teach English to parents and community members who will then tutor those students?

Which students are to be tutored? If it’s the kids in English immersion classrooms, won’t they have had enough English learning for the day without getting hit with it again when they get home? If it’s the kids who have already completed a year of immersion, why would they need tutoring if the immersion strategy worked for them?

And how effectively can an adult who has had maybe a few hours of instruction a week tutor a student who is getting or has had English instruction from qualified teachers all day every day of the school year? Maybe we should use the $50 million to pay the kids to tutor their parents and community members instead?

EDNA REID

Garden Grove

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It seems like everyone is missing an important point--the role the parents of the limited-English- speaking children should be assuming. What right do these parents have to be complaining that their children are not learning to read and write English when they are probably not speaking English in their homes?

Let Prop. 227 go through and let the parents take on some responsibility.

ROSS BISHOP

Solana Beach

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Re Prop. 227 and bilingual education: Is there any other country in the world that spends millions of dollars to educate foreigners in their native language?

And while we are about it, is there any country that spends millions of dollars printing up ballot and election materials in 15 to 20 different languages?

AUBREY PILGRIM

Long Beach

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Unz has a great idea with Prop. 227! In fact, it’s so good that I think it should be adapted to all language instruction. If we can pass a ballot initiative that will make a student who speaks no English take a one-year course and be fluent enough to be placed in classes with students who have been speaking English since birth, why can’t we do the same with foreign language instruction? Instead of our kids taking Spanish, French or German for two or three years, let’s mandate that they have to learn it perfectly in one. In fact, why don’t we pass initiatives ordering that they be completely proficient in algebra, chemistry and molecular biology after a single course?

DAVE JOHNSON

Fullerton