Oops: Bilingual Education, Marketed as Making Americans More Competitive Abroad, Instead Makes Them Less Competitive at Home for Teaching Jobs
01/02/2017
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From CBS News in Los Angeles:

Help Wanted: Bilingual Teachers Needed For California Schools December 31, 2016 11:18 AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) — While Californians passed a ballot measure to bring back bilingual education in the upcoming school year, educators say a challenge to getting the programs started will be finding more bilingual teachers.

Nearly two decades after banning most bilingual education, Californians voted in November to let schools restore it for both English learners and English speakers whose parents want them to learn Spanish, Mandarin and other languages to compete globally for jobs.

Because everybody knows that learning how to speak English well is disastrous in the 21st Century global economy.

There are two kinds of immersion programs:

First, just teach all the immigrant kids in their home language.

Second, teach white kids something intentionally exotic like Mandarin to keep blacks out. Blacks like English — they are pretty adept at using the English language in creative ways. They also have a little bit of respect and affection for French. But African-Americans despise Spanish, and Mandarin might as well be Moon Man talk to them. So these kind of immersion programs are a way for white parents to find public schools that actively repel black students without anybody calling them racist.

Educators say growing interest in bilingual programs will boost already high demand for teachers trained and credentialed to teach the classes. Schools that already have such programs in California — and in other states, including Utah and Oregon — have brought teachers on visas from overseas to meet the need.
Huh, I thought bilingual education was supposed to make Americans more competitive abroad and now you’re saying it’s making them less competitive at home for schoolteacher jobs?
… The overwhelming vote in favor of Proposition 58 is a huge turnaround from the backlash to bilingual education following a surge in immigration to California in the 1990s. Since then, some schools have started bilingual programs but parents of English learners had to sign annual waivers for their children to participate, and many districts were reluctant to take on the paperwork.

Since the measure passed — and with 73.5 percent of the vote — many schools are expected to expand bilingual offerings or start new programs. …

To meet the demand, school districts have looked overseas. Los Angeles Unified, which has more than 500 teachers in dual language immersion programs, brought nine teachers and two support staff on visas for Mandarin programs, said Barbara Jones, a district spokeswoman. In Oakland Unified, the district has brought visiting teachers from Mexico and Spain.

Funny how that works.

[Comment at Unz.com]

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