Harvard Panel Assails Bilingual Measure

Joining a political offensive to save bilingual education in California, a group of Harvard University scholars announced its opposition to Proposition 227 during a Chicano issues forum Saturday at UC Irvine.

The 14-member board of the Harvard Educational Review, a leading education research journal, suggested that students who don’t speak English fluently will suffer if the June 2 ballot initiative banning bilingual education is approved.

“Proposition 227 imposes a uniform and unproved instructional model which will severely limit the education opportunities and rights of children and communities in their pursuit of an equitable and high-quality education,” the journal’s editorial board stated.

The initiative, sponsored by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz, would place children with limited English skills into mainstream classes after about a year of English-language tutoring. With limited exceptions, it would end the practice of teaching in native languages.

Unz and other supporters argue that bilingual education has failed to teach students English.

A recent Times poll found that 63% of registered voters said they support the measure.

But Jose Moreno, a member of the Harvard board, blasted the initiative as “a singular model to such a diverse population, which will definitely be a setback to California children.”

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The board’s position was presented at a public forum reviewing educational advancements such as desegregation and affirmative action laws, and how these policies have affected the Chicano community.

Ten prominent scholars who sat on the panels also discussed how these strides may be reversed if the Unz initiative is approved by voters.

“Prop. 227 has to be defeated,” exclaimed Richard Valencia, an educational psychologist from the University of Texas at Austin. “In the Chicano community, there is an educational crisis. We have to fight for what we’ve been losing.”

Other panelists at the forum included Eugene Garcia, UC Berkeley’s dean of the Graduate School of Education, and Norma Cantu, the U.S. Department of Education’s assistant secretary for civil rights.

Cantu said that if the English-only initiative passes, it may violate federal regulations that require schools to provide adequate teachers, books and other resources to help children learn.

The initiative “will have to be evaluated to see if it’s an effective program,” Cantu said.

About 400 people, mostly educators, students and community activists, attended Saturday’s event, which touched on issues of Chicano history, achievements and struggles.

At the end of the program, several community activists were honored, including Silvia Mendez, daughter of the late Felicitas Mendez, who led a landmark fight to integrate Orange County schools in the 1940s.