Diversity

The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) is an organization devoted to representing Bilingual Learners and Bilingual Education professionals. Having well designed and well implemented school programs can make a critical difference for students. Several bills have been passed with the help of NABE to improve education, and learning different languages in school. Some are: Quality Education for All Act, Comprehensive Learning and Assessment for Students and Schools, State and Local Education Flexibility Act of 2005, No Child Left Behind Act, Bilingual Education Act, Native American Languages Acts, and the Civil Rights Act. (NABE 2004). Language of a group is given special consideration under the law. Many countries which have recently been colonies encourage their young people to learn other languages, because bilingualism of this type is important in international trade and politics. Every country has at least one linguistic minority whose members are, usually bilingual. Different languages are used in politics. With the growing number of nationalities in the United States we are to learn a different language to communicate. Hillary Clinton is for bilingual education in schools. (The Politics of Bilingualism) Opposing bilingualism in education on June 2, 1998, California voters passed Proposition 227, the initiative that focused on dismantling the established bilingual education programs. A newspaper article read, bilingualism threatens to destroy the tradition of American assimilation. California colleges are not teaching other languages and states it is not necessary for us to learn other language. (Two Opposing Views of Bilingualism 1999) Senator James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who sponsored the amendment, immigration legislation, argued that " it was necessary to clarify to immigrants their responsibility to learn the English language, adding that the importance of learning English was already recognized by the vast majority of foreign-born Americans." (The Inconsistency of Language Rights in the United States, 2004)