February 6, 1998
My old friend, Ron Unz, is at it again. Ron Unz is the once-liberal, now-ultra-conservative millionaire who funded his own campaign for the Republican nomination for California governor. This time he is author of the Unz Initiative, a California ballot proposition which will outlaw bilingual education and make English language immersion an absolute requirement.
Bilingual education has been a failure, so what's the problem? Ron Unz is an incredibly smart guy, but he is a lousy writer. This is the typical problem with ballot initiatives. Instead of presenting a proposal to the legislature and having it amended in open hearings, you get one guy's idea cast in concrete. There is no review. There is no compromise. It is all-or-nothing.
Anything we do to replace the existing system will be an experiment, and experimenting on humans is a dangerous thing. Unz's reform is just one of many possible reforms that could be put into place. Any reform strategy is going to need tweaking as its strengths and weaknesses become apparent. Moving cautiously while enabling flexibility will be crucial.
Unz's experimental method is actually nothing new. English-only teaching was required in California from 1872 to 1967. It was abolished by Governor Ronald Reagan because it had been a terrible failure.
One part of the Unz experiment is a provision requiring the spending of half a billion dollars to teach English to volunteers who will then go out and tutor others. Maybe this is a good idea. Maybe not. Maybe the dollar amount will need to be adjusted a few years from now. Maybe credentialing of the volunteers will be needed. But locking this provision into the law will make it impossible to ever modify the rules of this experiment. Just kiss that half a billion good bye.
One bit of insanity in Unz's proposition is that teaching a second language will be outlawed by a literal interpretation of this proposition. It says that all teaching must be done in English. There is no exception for teaching French, German, etc.
The worst thing in Unz's proposition is that it can only be amended by another ballot measure or by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature. You can't even get that many legislators to agree on motherhood and apple pie. This provision makes it impossible to ever fix the problems listed above or any others that arise as we gain experience with Unz's experiment.
The right thing is for the legislature to pass laws to fix or replace the bilingual system. These laws may very well leave it to local control to decide what form of experimental system should be tried. The Unz Initiative should not be allowed to become permanent law.
Richard M. Mathews
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