The Experts

Rosalie Porter is the director of the Institute for Research in English Acquisition and Development (READ), in her book Forked Tongue: the Politics of Bilingual Education, in which she argues against bilingual education, she concedes: “Bilingual education has brought in extra funding to hire and train paraprofessionals, often the parents of bilingual children, as classroom aides”

Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute at Washington D.C. says that "Sound-bite pedagogy is no cure for the complex interaction of social, economic, and institutional factors that determine the outcomes of contemporary American schools."

Jill Mora, a professor of education at San Diego State University echoes this point, "In reality, bilingualism is growing because of strong economic and cultural factors that are far beyond the scope of the public schools".

Loreta Medina, a professor of educational philosophy at Seattle State University points out that English-only education "promotes dissonant acculturation with negative consequences that can far exceed the alleged benefit".

Ken Noonan, a superintendant of schools in Oceanside County, California, says that bilingual education has encouraged “workshops and training sessions for all educators on the historical and cultural backgrounds of the rapidly growing and varied ethnic communities in their districts [which has resulted] in greater understanding of and respect for non-English speaking children and their families. These days teachers and administrators make an effort to communicate with parents who have a limited command of English, by sending letters and school information to them at home in their native languages and by employing interpreters when necessary for parent-teacher conferences”

Miss Ebeling, a elementary school teacher in the Bronx in 1932 says she is "looking forward to the day when every child can have the [bilingual] language program. The main idea is to introduce children to cultures other than ours so that they may better understand the world".