Needles takes bilingual education’s end in stride

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 3, 1998 | 10:02 a.m.

NEEDLES, Calif. -- Voters and educators in this old railroad town near the California-Nevada border seemed more interested in a local school bond issue than in a controversial statewide ballot measure on bilingual education that has garnered national attention.

Still, locals had an ample supply of opinions about Proposition 227, which passed Tuesday and will dismantle bilingual education in schools, replacing it with a year of immersion in English.

"It's America -- speak English," Needles insurance salesman Steve Jernigan said Tuesday after casting a "yes" vote at the Needles community center. "I'm not prejudiced, but if they don't learn English, it does them harm."

Jernigan's opinion seemed to be in the majority in Needles, despite some dissenters.

"I want the teachers to have the choice to teach the way they feel is best," Needles resident Kurtis McWilliams, who cast a "no" vote, said.

Tuesday's vote on Proposition 227 could have far-reaching implications in other states, such as Nevada, that have bilingual education programs and could eventually consider similar ballot measures.

The Clark County School District now has 44,434 Hispanic students -- about 23 percent of all students. That's up from 15.6 percent five years ago.

Clark County, which has students who speak 49 different languages, has 6,913 kindergartners through fifth-graders in bilingual education programs. Most of them speak Spanish.

Another 15,657 Clark County students are in English as a Second Language programs, with classes taught in English by specially trained teachers.

Clark County officials said students typically take three to five years to become proficient in reading, writing and speaking English.

"It is very expensive for us to have a child who can't use English," Clark County Schools Superintendent Brain Cram said. "We want to have them trained in English and get them speaking English as soon as possible."

Tuesday's vote means radical changes for California districts such as Los Angeles Unified, where huge influxes of students who speak Spanish and Asian languages have changed the face of education.

But in sweltering Needles, a town of roughly 5,000 people, Proposition 227 will mean few changes. The district's few Spanish-speaking students already are immersed in English-speaking classrooms.

"I really feel like, for kids to be competitive, they need to have a handle on English as soon as possible," D Street Elementary School Principal Nancy Silk said. "I really feel like immersion is the way to go."

Of the 1,400 students at nine Needles Unified School District schools, only 14 are classified English as a Second Language. They all sit in classrooms in which teachers teach in English. Then they get special help outside class from Sylvia Stephenson, a part-time ESL aide who travels from school to school.

Stephenson said she worries about what Proposition 227 will do. She said the Spanish-speaking students of Needles need more help, not less.

"There is no way a student with one year of English could cope with an academic English textbook, unless they have a genius IQ," Stephenson said. "It takes five or six years before they can read an English textbook."

She points to one of her students, 8-year-old Ana Gonzalez, who once cried tears of frustration in the principal's office and begged to go home. After three years in Needles, the second-grader is now reading and speaking English near her grade level.

"But it was hard," the girl said.

Other teachers echoed the concern about Proposition 227.

"A lot of these students don't know the basics in Spanish," Needles' Vista Colorado Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Susan Pluhar said. "If you just put them in a classroom and you're not giving them any help, you're asking for trouble."

Time will tell. For now, at least some educators in Needles are counting on the new solution to an old problem.

"This has been a matter of many families not wanting to assimilate," Needles interim Superintendent Dan King said. "It's unfortunate none of us have been able to come up with a perfect way to teach bilingual education."