Report: Agency Pushes Use of Bilingual Ed.

By Lynn Schnaiberg

The office charged with enforcing civil rights laws for the Department of Education has overstepped its mandate and pressured schools to use or expand bilingual education, says a report from a Washington-based think tank that opposes such classes.

Federal law generally requires school districts to address the language barriers that face limited-English-proficient students and guarantee those students equal educational opportunities. But the law does not spell out whether districts must do so by providing English-language instruction or by teaching students in their native languages.

The policy brief, released late last month by the Center for Equal Opportunity, is based on a review of roughly 160 letters that the department's office for civil rights sent to districts in 1996 and 1997 outlining problems in the programs being provided to LEP students. The report was written by a former OCR program officer, Jim Littlejohn, who left the agency in 1996 after 27 years and is...