‘Dual Immersion’ Serves Students Well

Re “Report Blasts Santa Ana Schools,” April 27: My wife and I take turns driving from where we live in an Orange County beach community 25 to 30 minutes each way, every day, to Jefferson Elementary School in Santa Ana. We do this because we are so impressed with the idea of a “dual-immersion” Spanish/English program. All the kids in both my children’s classes (first and second grade) are now speaking and writing in both languages, even the ones who were pretty much Spanish-only speakers to start with.

I did research on this issue before putting our children into this program, and it shows fairly clearly that people who have this kind of education are better problem-solvers and tend to do better in education than those who do not. But, for us, just the ability to speak (without an accent) and write in English and Spanish is reward enough. So, yes, we are one of those sets of parents who are “demanding” bilingual, dual-immersion programs. I certainly hope that this program is allowed to continue, despite the politics.

Fred J. Galluccio

Newport Beach