Dive Brief:

• California voters effectively banned bilingual education in 1998 by approving Proposition 227, but this year’s Proposition 58 could give schools more flexibility to teach students in two languages.
• NPR Ed reports Prop 58 opponents say bilingual education extends the time it takes students to learn English, hurting them in the long-term, and they point to initial growth in test scores for English learners after Prop 227 required English-only classrooms to claim they were right.
• Those in favor of effectively overturning the ban say those test score gains were temporary and students who get to develop their first language along with their second do better in the long-term, academically, and they also get the benefits of being bilingual, including better brain functioning and broader work opportunities.

Dive Insight:

Silicon Valley millionaire Ron Unz was behind the campaign for Proposition 227 in 1998 and he took his fight to Arizona and Massachusetts, winning approvals for English-only instruction in both places before his ballot initiative was torpedoed in Colorado. California is the first of the three states to attempt to overturn the ban and polls indicate it will win approval easily. It has broad-based support from educators as well as business leaders from a range of industries. Massachusetts is working toward similar flexibility, but through the legislature rather than a ballot initiative.

As English learners in these states have been kept from learning in two languages, there has been growing demand among native English speakers for the same opportunity. Dual language and immersion programs are on the rise as monolingual, often white, families sign up for early entry into a bilingual world.