One of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's grand campaign promises was a pledge to reform bilingual education. Coupled with California's 1998 referendum that replaced bilingual education with English language immersion, it seemed that the end was nearing for an education approach that is, as Manhattan Institute fellow Tony Coles puts it, "one of the least successful educational policies in modern times." But this week, Bloomberg bowed to political pressure and introduced a meek reform proposal that, rather than living up to his promise of "total immersion for youngsters," merely "tinkers around the edges" of the existing bilingual ed program. Worst of all, this "reform" plan includes $20 million in new money that will simply be injected into the old, ineffective system, which as the editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario/La Prensa says, does not deal with "the real problem" - a fundamentally unsound approach to teaching English to foreign students. So, it seems that Bloomberg has gone the way of the education status quo - infuse more money into a dying system and hope for the best.
"In Spanish or English, double talk," by Joyce Purnick, New York Times, June 25, 2003
"Mike surrenders," by Tony Coles, New York Post, June 26, 2003