Conservative Forum — Week of December 23

New Report Slams NYC Bilingual Ed Program

A new report from the Lexington Institute, Bilingual Education in New York City: Poor Accountability, Worse Progress by Don Soifer, confirms what conservatives have been warning about: Bilingual programs are an educational disaster for non-English speaking students who fail to learn English and also have a higher dropout rate.

Consider the staggering results:

New York City schools have 151,000 English learners and the dropout rate for these students has risen faster than that of other students.

More than 85% of New York City "students who entered bilingual or English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in the ninth grade 1991 . . . couldn’t read, write or speak English well enough to test out of those programs within four years ..."

Less than 50% of the city’s "English learners graduate from their bilingual or ESL programs into mainstream English classrooms within the three years that is the target of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. More than one in six of them remain in these "transitional" programs for nine years or longer."

Of Spanish-speaking English learners, 52% "are in bilingual programs, a rate far higher than for any other language minority."

According to Soifer, one Brooklyn school received a first-year bilingual grant of $175,000 for teaching, and ended up spending $26,000 on unspecified "fringe" expenses.

The report highlights "major trends" among these programs, such as the problem in meeting federal standards and guidelines for various school districts to remain in compliance with the No Child Left Behind law. Some schools selectively under-report test scores to boost their "improvements."

One Bronx school "reported that students rose from the 10.0 percentile to the 17.1 percentile in English language arts section of the Language Assessment Battery test . . . [A]lthough the school reported that 136 students took the test, these data only included scores for 104" out of the 136.

Soifer writes, "Are the improvements real, or manufactured by dropping one out of every four test scores?"

The 28-page report, which covers 58 New York City bilingual programs, is based upon information from federal grant applications since 1999. Copies are available from the Lexington Institute, Tel: (703) 522-5828, Fax: (703) 522-5837 or on their website: www.lexingtoninstitute.org.

Support Group Assists Immigration Victims

A new support group FILE (Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement) was formed earlier this year, with members in 16 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, to provide support for citizens who have been injured as a result of lax immigration enforcement.

FILE is an association of lawyers, researchers, law enforcement officers, and other experts working on behalf of Americans to ensure that immigration law is being enforced.

FILE assists in filing lawsuits and complaints in seeking damage or personal injury compensation as a result of criminal acts by illegal aliens. One issue FILE has actively taken up is combating the growing acceptance by U.S. institutions of foreign-issued ID cards to illegal aliens.

For additional information, contact Craig Nelsen (402) 341-0565 or [email protected] or visit their web site at www.fileus.com.

Poll Reveals Elite/Public Division on Immigration

A new poll by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals a sharp gap between public opinion and the views of elites (public officials or public figures) on the subject of immigration.

The CIS report, Elite vs. Public Opinion: An Examination of Divergent Views on Immigration, co-authored with Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA Education and Research Foundation and Steven Camarota, Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies, reveals a growing gulf between opinion leaders and the American public on:

Whether present immigration levels are a "critical threat to the vital interests of the United States," a differential gap of 46%.

Whether reducing illegal immigration is an important foreign policy goal, a 48% differential gap between elites and the American public.

Whether legal immigration should be reduced or remain the same, with 55% of the public wanting a reduction and 27% favoring the status quo as opposed to 18% of opinion leaders preferring a reduction in immigration levels and 60% favoring the status quo.

The report is based upon data from a recent survey published by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CIS report is available online: www.cis.org/2002/back1402.html and the CFR survey is available at www.worldviews.org/detailreports/usreport/html/ch5s5.html.

Correction

In the "Right Ear" column of the December 9 issue (p. 17), Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove is erroneously identified as a Republican governor. Musgrove is a Democrat.