Proposition
227 Proposition
227
How it all started....
It all started at Ninth Street Elementary. In early 1996, a group of Spanish-speaking parents pulled their children out of the school to protest its failure to teach English. They blamed bilingual education.
The boycott lasted nearly two weeks, and it received extensive coverage in the Los Angeles Times – suggesting a new trend, perhaps even a sea-change, in Latino attitudes.
Ron Unz
These reports caught the eye of a Silicon Valley businessman named Ron Unz. "Parents shouldn't have to carry picket signs to get English instruction for their kids," Unz declared. Dipping into his personal fortune, he organized a statewide ballot initiative requiring that "all children ... be taught English by being taught in English."
The end of bilingual education?
The measure, known as Proposition 227, passed overwhelmingly on June 2, 1998. It virtually outlawed bilingual education in California.