06/06/2002 Archived Entry: "Bilingual Education"

Here is a fascinating obituary read on The Bilingual Education Act 1968 - 2002, by James Crawford. It's worth the reading because it's tough to find things like this that don't come from a strong pluralist or assimilationist perspective. I came across this article in my thesis research. Given the two previous decades of contentious debate over the Act, the bipartisan support of this was rather intriguing, it's another classical "borrow and spend" Bush-like move.

The original Bilingual Act, also known as Title VII, had good original intentions, but like a lot of bills, just as it was passed, amendments were added. This resulted in making the Act muddled and open to interpretation (not that this new one doesn't do that as well).

Initiated by Senator Yarborough in 1968, the Act was intended to confront SW poverty by introducing bilingual entitlement for Mexican Americans. Included was a clear distinction between those who were voluntary immigrants who made a choice to give up their language and move to the US, and those who were annexed during previous times of war. However, by the time the Act passed, this distinction was not included. And further, it was amended to cover all students of limited English speaking ability, whatever their first language. Hence the wide-open interpretation, and by a decade later, reactionary forces were organizing to enforce English as the only educational language-- which itself served as a vehicle for a larger cultural war that was coming out in the open... I am covering this more in depth on this webpage.

The solution to the conflict, after a couple of decades worth of gigantic legal efforts and monumentous political fallout, was simple: change the words (a symbolic victory for the assimilationists) and spend more money (a material victory for the pluralists). When you look at the fine print of how the money is dispersed, you really begin to understand how DC works. Previously, a competitive-grant system doled out the Title VII monies. Now, funding will be based strictly upon enrollment. Given that nearly all of the representatives who are black or latino are from "majority-minority" districts, it's easy to see why they would support this, as it secures funding for their districts.