California Proposition 227 (1998) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Proposition 227 was a California ballot proposition

California ballot proposition

In California, a ballot proposition is a proposed law that is submitted to the electorate for approval in a direct vote . It may take the form of a constitutional amendment or an ordinary statute. A ballot proposition may be proposed by the State Legislature or by a petition signed by members of...

passed in the June 2, 1998 ballot. It effectively ended bilingual education

Bilingual education

Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...

programs in the state (with some exceptions) and replaced them with the Structured English Immersion

Structured English Immersion

Structured English Immersion is a technique for rapidly teaching English to English Language Learners. The term was coined by Keith Baker and Adriana de Kanter in a 1983 recommendation to schools to make use of Canada's successful French immersion programs. In the 2009 U.S. Supreme Court...

model. The bill's intention was to educate Limited English Proficiency students in a rapid, one-year program. It was sponsored by Ron Unz

Ron Unz

Ronald Keeva Unz, is a former businessman and political activist, best known for an unsuccessful race in 1994 for the governorship of California, and for sponsoring propositions promoting structured English immersion education. In March 2007, The American Conservative named him its new publisher...

, the runner-up candidate in the 1994 Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

gubernatorial primary. The proposition was controversial because of its close proximity to heated political issues including race, immigration

Immigration to the United States

Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...

, and poverty

Poverty in the United States

Poverty is defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday September 13th, 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, up from 14.3% in 2009 and to its highest level...

. The methods of education enacted by the proposition reflect the electorate's support of assimilation

Assimilation

Assimilation may refer to:*Assimilation , a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound...

over multiculturalism

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

. It passed with a margin of 61% to 39%. Although many still argue today about the effects of the proposition, research on its success is for the most part inconclusive.

See also