The school board in Oakland, Calif., voted December 18, 1996 to recognize "Ebonics," or black English, as a separate language. The school district also wanted to apply for federal bilingual education funding to help teach their Ebonics-speaking students.

The National Association of Bilingual Education and the National Education Association like the "Ebonics" idea. And why shouldn’t they? It would mean a whole new market for bilingual education, meaning more bilingual teachers are needed, meaning more bilingual education funding. Sadly, the fact that children need to have standard English skills to succeed is overlooked.

The debate over Ebonics exposes one of the roots of the problem with bilingual education in this country. Our national bilingual education policy is giving schools the wrong incentives: instead of learning English as quickly as possible so that they can succeed in regular classes, students are languishing in bilingual classes while their schools and teachers collect extra funding.

And where does this extra funding go? To buy textbooks printed in students’ native languages. To find teachers that are fluent in these native languages --never mind if their English skills are any good.

Learning English--the language of success in the United States--is essential for students to take advantage of the opportunities this country can offer them after they graduate. For too many students, our current bilingual education system is not doing its job. In the 106th Congress, U.S.ENGLISH intends to reform bilingual education so that, instead of being a stumbling block, it becomes a stepladder to success.

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This page was last updated 04/26/99.

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