Who killed bilingual education?
Two California professors debate the political factors that created the backlash against bilingual education in California. The dispute revolves around what role the California Association of Bilingual Educators played and what kind of support came from Latino voters. Northridge, Calif. * Gregory Rodriguez, a research fellow at the conservative Pepperdine Institute and a relative newcomer to Chicano/Latino politics, bases his April 20 “English Lesson in California” on numerous untested assumptions. First, he says that the powerhouse behind the campaign for bilingual education has been the California Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE) and that behind it is “California’s powerful teachers’ unions–one of the Democratic Party’s strongest constituencies,”…
