How can we reverse the attacks on bilingual education?

Reading circle/happy hour for progressive and activist teachers

Friday, May 14, 2010 4:30pm
Señor Fish Restaurant
422 E 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
(Corner of 1st & Alameda in Little Tokyo/Downtown)

Reading: Jeff Bale, "The fight for bilingual education,"
in International Socialist Review, Jan-Feb 2010
http://www.isreview.org/issues/69/feat-bilingual.shtml
(other article suggestions welcome)

From Prop 227 to the federal "No Child Left Behind" law to the dismantling of dual language and "waiver-to-basic" classes across LAUSD, bilingual education has been the target of a concerted political attack for many years now. It's even to the point where the Arizona Department of Education is ordering teachers who speak English "with an accent" removed from positions teaching students who are learning English. This would rip thousands of bilingual teachers out of their classrooms.

All this is despite decades of solid, peer-reviewed educational research that shows that emergent bilingual students benefit dramatically in numerous ways from receiving instruction in their home language while they learn a second language.

Sponsored by the LA branch of the International Socialist Organization.
For more information, lacityiso@yahoo.com or (323) 273-5993