Hispanics 'Are of One Voice' in Support of Bilingual Education

By Peter Schmidt

The authors of a survey of the nation's three largest Hispanic groups--Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans--say they have found surprisingly high levels of support for bilingual education, provided its purpose is to teach English.

Bilingual education appears to be one of the few areas in which Latinos "are essentially of one voice,'' a report on the survey states.

And, the authors conclude, that voice appears far more supportive of bilingual education as a means of learning English than is claimed by many critics of bilingual education, who maintain that such instruction is a barrier to...