The ELPAC Report January 2001

With most of the spotlight on the interminable federal elections, there was little mention in the news of two major ballot initiatives supporting English. Yet measures to protect English and help kids learn waltzed to easy passage in state initiative elections on Nov. 7. Voters in Arizona voted to reject bilingual education, and Utah’s voters adopted English as the official language of government.

Arizona’s bilingual education initiative – "English for the Children, Arizona" – follows California’s successful English for the Children initiative. The initiative eliminates traditional bilingual education – which teaches children in their native language and keeps them away from English – and requires that children be taught in English. Despite cries of doom when California passed its initiative in 1998, rapidly-rising test scores have shown that children taught in English do better than those taught in their native languages. And school systems which continue to teach children in their native languages have far lower test scores than similar schools which teach in English.

Despite this record of success for teaching in English, the odds were long against the Arizona initiative. The initiative proponents, led by teacher Hector Ayala, were outspent 10-1 in the election, and all the state’s major politicians and media outlets were outspokenly against the initiative.

Nevertheless, on election day, Arizona’s Proposition 203 passed with 63% of the vote.

Ron Unz, the software entrepreneur who sponsored both the California and Arizona initiatives, said after the vote: "Given so many close state votes around the country, and the enormous polling support for English almost everywhere, I strongly suspect that serious state or national candidates willing to back such a popular idea would have easily saved voters from the need for a late election night vigil or our current constitutional controversy. Perhaps at some point, some politicians will begin to see the light. Meanwhile, another 150,000 immigrant students in Arizona will begin learning English at the beginning of the next school year."

Meanwhile, in Utah, Proposition "A," declaring English the official language of the state, breezed to victory with 67% of the vote. Utah becomes the 25th State to adopt an official English law. The ACLU immediately vowed to sue to block the new law.

For a while, it looked like the Utah initiative battle would be tougher. The governor and Senators opposed the initiative, as did news media editorials. The bilingual education industry mobilized against the initiative. And earlier polls showed higher support for the initiative.

Some news media coverage focused on U.S. English, the pro-English organization backing the initiative. The Salt Lake City Tribune ran a front page article reporting that Mauro Mujica, the head of U.S. English, gets an annual salary of $427,000 (official tax records of U.S. English Foundation show far lower compensation for Mujica).

Nevertheless, Utah voters saw through the smokescreen and overwhelmingly adopted the measure. Proposition A was the first ballot initiative Utah voters had enacted since 1976.

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