Letter: ‘Dual-language’ schools latest fad for left

Thursday, March 23, 2000 | 9:33 a.m.

Bilingual education, that old favorite, is being challenged. Even Riley admits that more than 50 percent of foreign-born students drop out. After 30 years and billions of dollars, Congress is now spending $11 million on an independent evaluation of bilingual education. The data so far do not look good for "traditional" bilingual education.

The biggest challenge comes from California, where almost two years of data are being collected following the overwhelming passage of Proposition 227, which limits bilingual education to one school year. One full academic year after passage, those elementary schools which are compliant showed English-as-a-second-language second and third graders reading at the 35th percentile, compared to the 19th percentile in schools which are still bilingual.

Obviously, it's time for a name change. Voila, we have "dual-language" education. Riley of course forgets that it failed miserably in several hundred public elementary schools in the early '80s.

Here we go again with another expensive, unproven approach by the Washington educrats. And another half million or more kids will have their education shortchanged.

KENNETH RECORD