I recently had to do research on this proposition for an Education class and what I found scared me. This is not related to my thesis or research interests but it is related to my career interests so I think it's important to share. In California there has been a law in place since 1998 that makes immersion the only way to teach English Language Learners in public schools. Previous efforts to use bilingual education or other programs were halted by this law and still today there is very little room for experimenting with other programs. There is only one way around this method, and that is through a parental waiver saying that another method would be better suited for their children. Studies have shown that this law hasn't made a real positive or negative difference in ELL test scores but because it still stands there is no way to try out another program that might be more effective.
Something that I found fascinating about this proposition is that it wasn't started by an organization or a group of educators but rather one multi-millionaire who decided he didn't like bilingual education and had the funds to garner support and change the law. This sort of reminds me of the man who gave so much money to the Smithsonian so he got to in some ways change history with the exhibit. Here, a man who really has nothing to do with education (he doesn't even have children) was able to change the way hundreds or thousands of children are educated, mostly because he had the money to do it. Frustrating to say the least...
Here's the full text of the proposition in case you want to see some of the rhetoric used.
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