State Board Denies Requests to Continue Bilingual Ed

The State Board of Education refused Friday to consider several school district requests for permission to continue bilingual education despite an Alameda County judge’s ruling last month that such applications must be heard.

Instead, board members meeting in Sacramento voted to appeal the Aug. 27 ruling by Superior Court Judge Henry Needham Jr.

Silvina Rubinstein, executive director of the California Assn. for Bilingual Education, denounced the board’s refusal to consider requests to waive the requirements of Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual initiative approved by voters in June.

“It’s a lack of commitment to provide leadership to the schools,” Rubinstein said.

But there was good news Friday for some schools seeking to continue teaching in two languages as the board approved 11 applications for so-called charter schools, a spokesman said. Such schools are exempt from most state education laws--including, state officials say, Proposition 227.

Among the 11 are Gates Elementary School in Orange County and an elementary school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, both of which plan to teach children through a bilingual technique known as “dual immersion,” said board spokesman Gregory McGinity.

Dual immersion has been less controversial than other forms of bilingual education because its goal, usually, is to teach English-speakers Spanish and Spanish-speakers English at the same time.

The board’s actions Friday underscored the tangled situation these days with respect to bilingual education “waivers” in the wake of Proposition 227.

The initiative allows parents to apply for waivers if they feel that English immersion is not suited for their children.

In addition, 40 school districts have applied to the state board for waivers to the law, and 22 have applied to Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin for still another form of exemption as “alternative” schools. Gates Elementary is one of two Orange County schools to win that form of reprieve from Eastin.