In the Nov. 5 state election, Massachusetts residents will not only elect new representatives, but will also decide whether or not to dismantle the current bilingual education system. The current system, which allows immigrant children to be instructed in their native language while learning English, may be replaced with an English-only immersion program. At a forum held Tuesday evening in Upper Usdan, both supporters and opponents of Question 2, the bilingual education ballot initiative, gave their opinions on the issue to educate voters. This referendum has been imported from California, where state voters approved the proposition in 1998. State representative Debby Blumer (D - Framingham) said the situation in Massachusetts is not the same as in California. She said that while "Massachusetts has 1 million children enrolled in public schools, only 5 percent are currently participating in bilingual education."

Blumer said that in California, however, over 1.5 million children out of 6 million attending public school are enrolled in bilingual education programs.

Dr. Susan McGilvray-Rivet, director of the office of bilingual education in the Framingham school district, explained that under the current system, each immigrant child's English abilities are tested. Then, parents have the choice of four programs for their children, although school districts make individual program recommendations based on the test results. She added that children not immediately placed in English-only classrooms are not segregated; they take "music, art, P.E., and other units of study" with mainstream students and often partnered with English-only students in a "gradual process of transition."

A co-sponsor of Question 2 and Co-chair of the Massachusetts English for the Children Initiative Campaign, Dr. Rosalie Porter, who had immigrated to the United States at a young age, said she feels the current system is failing, and added that she sees Massachusetts Curricular Assessment System (MCAS) standardized test results as evidence of this.

"There has always been accountability in the law, but it hasn't been enforced until the last few years," Porter said.

She said that as a result of this new enforcement, "bilingual education students must take the same MCAS as other students after they have been in the system for four years."

"Ninety-two percent of third graders passed the MCAS," McGilvray-Rivet said. She said this statistic refers to the students in bilingual education programs only, and does not include those in English-only classrooms. She also added that in Framingham, all high school graduates who were legal immigrants, and therefore eligible for Federal financial aid went on to some form of higher education.

Marissa Martinez '03, from California, spoke on the panel from "personal experience, not statistics." Born a U.S. citizen into a Spanish-speaking household, she only participated in bilingual education for one year before making a successful transition to a mainstream classroom. Martinez said that "the higher the age (of the student), the longer the transition needed" and added that many of her relatives did not possess the same high-level language skills as she did, and needed more time in bilingual education programs before entering English-only classrooms.

Blumer said she believes new educational reforms passed by the Massachusetts state legislature this summer, which limit students to only three years of bilingual education programs, make Question 2 unnecessary. In addition, a provision in the referendum allowing for lawsuits against teachers who instruct children in their native language, "makes the law look mean-spirited rather than constructive," Blumer said.

Porter disagreed with this statement, and said that this part of the law has not yet been enforced in California, and that "in the initiative, teachers can explain something in the child's native language - they just can't teach it for three or four hours per day."

McGilvray-Rivet said she encourages all citizens to "read the exact language of the ballot measure." She said she feels, "there are certainly people who can learn a language quickly and easily without support, but not all can."

"Children can master a second language, but timing is key. The more time they spend on English, the better they can learn it," Porter said

The event was sponsored by Tzedek Hillel and co-sponsored by several other on and off-campus groups.