Californians may have voted to restore bilingual education this school year. However, that is only half of the problem as the program is still challenged by the issue problem of finding bilingual teachers.
Bilingual education has been banned for almost 20 years. But with the affirmative votes last November of 73.5 percent of the voters, parents who want their English-speaking children to become globally competitive will now have the chance to learn Mandarin, Spanish and other languages.
There is already a high demand for teachers who have the credentials to teach bilingual education but the impending implementation of bilingual programs is expected to double if not triple this demand. Some of the schools in California, Oregon and Utah, which already offer the bilingual program, have hired trained teachers from abroad to narrow the gap.
"There is already a shortage for bilingual teachers with just the demand we have right now," California Commission on Teacher Credentialing spokesperson Joshua Speaks said. Also known as Proposition 58, the bilingual education program is a turnaround from the ban sometime in the 1990s when annual waivers have to be signed by parents so their English-learner children would be able to participate in bilingual education, as per Washington Post.
With the passage of the measure, LA Times said English-Only instruction have not only been repealed but California public schools are now empowered to develop their own multilingual programs for education. Supporters of Proposition 58 said the trend now is for employees to speak different languages, which is defeated by an earlier law requiring students to speak and learn only in English. Its opponents, however, claim that it will only bring back the old problems of having students who speak Spanish but who do not speak English.
According to EdSource, the overwhelming vote for the measure proposing bilingual education is a significant shift from the racial resentments that engulfed California in the 1990s. It is a signal that California has shifted from a racial to a multiethnic and multiracial society which in the end will benefit its people, especially with global economics.
