SACRAMENTO, CA - Last month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 1769, which would have created a special curriculum for students learning to speak English. The story of this bill and veto will prove educational to parents and policymakers alike.

In April, the California state Board of Education adopted a new framework for "language arts" that did not provide separate instructional materials for those learning English. That sparked an angry reaction from the state's bilingual lobby and allied legislators. Marta Escutia, a Democrat from Whittier, introduced SB 1769 to counter the board's new policy. Such was the fury against it that the legislature, controlled by Democrats, axed the entire $1.6 million budget of the Board of Education.

That board, as it happens, is the State Education Agency (SEA) for all matters related to the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which enjoys the support of powerful Democrats such as Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Each state that accepts federal grants must submit an implementation plan for the NCLB accountability system to the U.S. Department of Education. That accountability system differs from
California's.

The NCLB focuses on the individual and sets proficiency targets for all students by 2013-2014. California's Academic Performance Index (API), on the other hand, takes a schoolwide approach. The performance of the best students allows the school to claim schoolwide growth while many students fail to advance or get the help they need. PRI will outline the way this deceptive system works in a forthcoming study of school accountability.

In California, the performance targets remain low, with schools having to make tiny annual gains that will take them decades to reach proficiency. Under some programs, a school can show "significant growth" by advancing as little as one point on the Academic Performance Index. The state could remedy such weak performance by bringing classroom practice and curriculum in line with California's tough academic standards. The response of some legislators is to lower the bar yet further.

Assembly Bill 2975, by Berkeley Democrat Loni Hancock, defined proficiency for NCLB purposes as the ability to pass California's high-school exit exam. That test, which many legislators oppose, is more a gauge of tenth-grade knowledge than any mark of high-school mastery. To pass requires only a 60-percent mark in English and 55 percent in math. Students can also take the test five times. Hancock's bill passed the legislature but the governor responded with a veto.

"Redefining the level of academic achievement necessary to designate students as 'proficient' does not make the students proficient," said the governor, who also vetoed Marta Escutia's measure.

"This sort of segregated learning is not only detrimental to the language learning process," said the governor in his veto message. "It would have a divisive impact on our children, classrooms, schools, teachers, and our larger society." Such an approach, the governor added, "undermines the very principle of inclusiveness that inspires so many entrepreneurial and hard-working immigrants to pursue the American dream."

Segregated learning, a kind of educational apartheid, existed for English learners before 1998. So-called bilingual education was really instruction in Spanish, and an academic disaster. In 1998, 61 percent of voters approved Proposition 227, which virtually eliminated bilingual education. Since then the bilingual establishment has been trying to get around the law, with SB 1769 the latest attempt.

Twenty years ago, in 1986, voters made English the official language of California by a margin of 73-27 percent. All students should learn English, but not by a separate curriculum. All students should become proficient in English and math, and the standards should be kept high, not lowered. To that end, legislators should help the governor restore funding for the state Board of Education.

Reaction, rhetoric, and segregated classes won't get the job done for California students. Neither will an accountability system geared for the need of educrats to show that all is well when it isn't.

K. Lloyd Billingsley is Editorial Director at the Pacific Research Institute. He can be reached via email at
lbillingsley@pacificresearch.org.