Bilingual (Two languages) Education in America

There has been a raging controversy on Bilingual Education in the United States of America, ever since President Bush has set in motion his Education Plan. Surfaced as a response to the Plan that struck a chord among political bigwigs who believe that federal funding should be tied to student performance, the controversy has raised many eye brows.

Critics of the Education Plan opine that it is aimed at getting rid of a stipulation that the federal government give preference to bilingual education over English-only programs.

However, critics of the Bilingual Education in America claim that it is the most "troubled program" arguing that it has failed to deliver the goods. The battle between the proponents and the opponents of both the sides saw a number of reports in favor of their arguments, both sides.

Over a period of time, reports have poured in to suggest that Bilingual Education is a noble experiment but "turned out to be" terribly wrongheaded.

Some of the reports even cited Massachusetts as a classic case. Massachusetts has over 40,000 bilingual education students, and is one of only nine states in the US to require bilingual education in all districts where there is a sufficient number of students who are not proficient in English.

The effectiveness of the bilingual policy came in for sharp criticism in a report five years ago. It concluded that "Twenty-five years after passage of the bilingual education law in Massachusetts, there is still no proof that the mandated approach to teaching works better than other approaches, such as intensive English instruction. Not only is there no proof from Massachusetts, but there is none from the many studies that have been conducted in other states.”
Reformers want this scene to change.

California voters approved a referendum to end the Bilingual Education. The results have raised more dust.

But the government seems to be hell-bent on bringing about some reforms in the education. Speaking at a conference Seeing the Future: How the Private Sector and High Technology Can Improve Education, February-end in Silicon Valley, the Secretary of Education Rod Paige outlined the key points from the education plan thus:

• Higher Standards
• Accountability
• Local Control
• Parental Choice

Paige also said that the American public has tolerated "mediocrity and failure" in public schools long enough, and sweeping changes are in order. He chose to caution the nation that the problems will not be fixed with dollars alone.
Relatively strong, these words suggest carefully chalked out stringent action in the offing from the Republican government.