Linda Chavez

Bilingual education programs are largely a failure, argues Linda Chavez in the following viewpoint. These programs—which typically offer years of instruction solely in an immigrant student’s native language—usually do not increase students’ language skills, Chavez contends. There is no evidence that proves that immigrants must become fluent in their first language before learning English, she reports. In fact, students who are placed in bilingual programs often end up illiterate in both their native language and English. Policymakers should end bilingual education and promote instruction in English for language- minority children, she concludes. Chavez is the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Washington, D.C., and the author of Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation.

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