As Arizona’s Deputy Schools Superintendent and a Latina, I abhor Michael Chihak’s bigoted statements about Supt. Tom Horne’s approach to English instruction.
I grew up in Bisbee, speaking Spanish at home, though my parents insisted that we learn English. I graduated from U of A and have been an educator for more than 40 years, an impossible goal without learning English as a child.
Mr. Chihak falsely asserts that immersion is racist. I co-wrote the initiative mandating English immersion be used to teach immigrant children. Properly implemented, the proficiency rate for English learners was 31 percent. But after Supt. Horne left office in 2011, the law was weakened, and proficiency is now 11 percent. Horne is in court to have the law applied correctly and increase that rate.
Ironically, it’s often white liberals who try to speak for Latinos, but Hispanics like me don’t need Mr. Chihak’s help. I understand English perfectly well, no thanks to bilingual education proponents like him.
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Margaret Garcia Dugan
Phoenix
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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