Free Republic

Hoping to appeal to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's immigrant roots, educators and legislators Thursday called on the Austrian-born leader to support the use of special textbooks geared toward students born outside the United States. "You're also an immigrant. You still know exactly what I'm talking about, governor," Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, said during a news conference promoting her bill aimed at bridging the gap between native and non-native students. Senate Bill 1769 would require the state Board of Education to develop an approach to teaching reading and writing that incorporates English instruction for non-native speakers. Advocates envision textbooks and teaching materials...

A high-decibel debate among education officials, politicians and advocates of bilingual schooling that led to the recent yanking of funds from the state Board of Education boils down to one difficult question: How should California teach roughly a quarter of the state's public school population -- students who are not native English speakers -- how to read and write? The persistent issue moved into the spotlight last week when former governors Gray Davis and Pete Wilson urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to resist bilingual activists and stick with California's current approach to teaching English learners how to read and write. There...