Bilingual Education Measure Has Signatures To Make Ballot

ELL  EDUCATION 

By Andrew Theen

Portland, OR  June 17, 2008 5:05 p.m.

Oregon voters are likely to see a controversial ballot measure this fall on bilingual education.

Initiative activist Bill Sizemore has gathered enough signatures to qualify a measure to eliminate school programs for students whose native language is not English.

The initiative prohibits teaching those students in a language other than English for more than two years.   And it sets a cutoff for ELL programs -- those for English Language Learners.

Larry Wolf is the president of the Oregon Education Association.  He says limiting non-native speakers to two years of English languge instruction is "unreasonable."  He says the measure could have unintended consequences.

Larry Wolf: "It really takes local control away from our school districts, you know?  Local school districts should have the ability to decide how much ELL a student needs and on an individual basis.  You know two years might be enough for some, five years might not be enough for others."

Wolf expressed surprise that the initiative received enough signatures.

The measure needs more than 82,000 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. 

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