Several of the comments I've seen in the CNN discussion observe that bilingual education is very important in numerous countries, including most of Europe. There are two flaws with using this argument to support Spanish-language elementary education.
The first relates to size. Europe is so small and tightly knit that knowing two or three languages is nearly essential to doing business on the continent. Compare this to the US, where English is the de facto standard of business.
The second flaw with this argument is the implicit assumption that these students are learning both languages. If 90% of teaching is in Spanish, and 100% of home life is in Spanish, the chances of a student learning English well are dwarfingly small.
That said, it is clear that teaching only English will overwhelm and, in many cases, put Spanish-speaking students permanently behind their English-speaking counterparts.
What is perhaps more appropriate is to provide classes in Spanish and phase these out gradually, but firmly. That is, students should be taught in Spanish for a few years, but during those years, they will be put on an aggressive English-teaching program. As they gain proficiency in English, an increasing portion of their classes will be taught in English, starting with reading, writing, and social studies, and eventually moving to math and science (which can be taught in Spanish with less of a detriment to the student's long-term learning).
Bob Hartley, from Pittsburgh, makes an important statement in his comment on the CNN site:
"Hysteria regarding immigrants has gone on in this country ever since the Irish came in the mid-Nineteenth century.
It's an old song used to mask intolerance."
The problem we face in America is more urgent and cuts deeper than the discussion of bilingual education. According to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, we have an educational crisis on our hands and are not acting quickly enough to solve it. On average, our students are on pace with the world in fourth grade, but by 12th grade they have fallen far behind in technical disciplines.
There are several factors that must be addressed in order to improve America's educational quality. The first and most important is parental involvement. Parents must encourage and motivate their child's education (including Spanish-speaking parents, who should enroll in their own ESL courses). The disintegration of the family in America (47.5% of households are now married) plays a huge part in this, but that is a conversation for another day.
The second touchpoint we must address is much harder for individuals to impact. The US educational system as a whole has inherent flaws. Education in the US tends to reward technical training differently and less than corporate America. This makes it hard for education to get and retain the talent we need to train our children well in math and science, and to excite and motivate them to consider it as a career option. Additionally, we see far too few girls motivated to excel in technical disciplines and pursue them in higher education.
Friedman's book is important in that it calls Americans to action. If this generation and the next are to overcome an unfounded sense of entitlement and face the 21st century, we must make significant changes to how education is run, so that students are challenged and taught effectively. How this is to be done is up for discussion, and US government may or may not be capable, given its failures.
