Unfortunately,
Proposition 227 has many down sides and negative effects on students. The outlawing of any other language for
teaching will have a drastic affect on those students who are not yet
proficient in the English language.
These students would quickly fall behind other students who are more
prepared to deal with English as they are taught. These students will have to be spending a greater amount of time
learning English, while the students who are already fluent are moving on to
greater detail of the language and into other subjects. Students fluent in English will advance much
faster in all areas and thus receive higher test grades and scores. Proposition 227 gets rid of any program in
place that is teaching two languages.
This puts all non-English speaking students at a great
disadvantage. The proposition also
violates children’s rights as given in Lau vs. Nichols. This case guaranteed children the right to
receive help in overcoming any language barrier that prevents them from being
educated properly. By also limiting the
parent’s rights to choice, this proposition does all students a
disservice. Proposition 227 would
prevent any of the great advantages to being bilingual as well as having a
negative effect on the students.
The benefits of
being bilingual are enough that a system of bilingual education should be
established.
Or at least some means of
protecting those students that already speak another language should be in
place to assist these students in learning both languages. In bilingual education, the subject
material is taught to students in their native language while they also have a
separate class that teaches them English.
This way they do not fall behind other students. Both English and the student’s native
language are used for instruction of new material. The extent to which each is used is just determined by the
student’s ability to comprehend material with each language. The more comfortable a student is becoming
with English the more it can be used to teach the material. Students that are still very reliant on
their native language can continue be taught in that language without fear of
punishment or of being treated as inferior.
This way schools can build upon the skills that the student already has
by applying their academic knowledge while learning a new language.