Department To Reconsider Controversial Bilingual-Ed. Rules

By Peter Schmidt

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-U.S. Education Department officials said last week that they would request comments on several issues before drafting recommendations for revamping federal bilingual-education programs, which are to be reauthorized in 1993.

Rita Esquivel, the director of the office of bilingual education and minority-languages affairs, urged educators at an OBEMLA management training institute here to comment on issues her office will raise in a Federal Register notice this week or next.

A draft of the notice solicits comment on regulations dealing with which programs are funded through Title VII of the act and which students are placed in them, and on proposals to provide new forms of training for teachers and parents of limited-English-proficient children, said Nguyen Ngoc Bich,...