Language choice for Latino students
THE SCHOOL CHOICE movement has advanced throughout the nation in recent years, permitting more children to attend schools that appear best-suited to their needs. Despite this progress, however, the families of Latino students with limited English proficiency are still being denied a fundamental choice in their children’s schooling—the right to choose programs featuring intensive English-language instruction rather than segregated classrooms where Spanish is the norm. Sadly, a coalition of Latino activists, bilingual-education advocates, and well-intentioned but misguided policymakers has either prevented Latino families from exercising any choice or has heavily pressured them to enroll their children in native-language programs that have proven to be largely unsuccessful.