D.C. School Bilingual Plan Pits Black, Hispanic Parents

By Lynn Schnaiberg

When District of Columbia officials won a grant to launch an intensive bilingual program at an elementary school, they expected teachers and parents to hail the chance for all students to learn both Spanish and English.

But the $675,000 federal grant has stirred tensions this fall at H.D. Cooke Elementary School and its surrounding community. In some cases, the controversy has pitted the neighborhood's African-American residents against the immigrants from Central America who live among them.

"This plan has created factions in the school that weren't there before," said John Traina, a preschool teacher at Cooke who is active in the teachers' union. "It used...