Carter Conditions Were Right Summary

“Why this bilingual education ban should have repealed long ago”, is an op-ed piece from CNN written by Phillip M. Carter, a scholar of language and culture in U.S. Latino communities. Carter writes that multilingual education is needed to boost a globalized economy and support students that seek to develop bilingual fluency. Carter begins his argument by telling the reader about the years before the ballot Proposition 227 was passed. “Conditions were right” (Carter), Carter states that California had the ability to uplift their economy by building a multilingual economy, but instead a bilingual ban was created. The ban was issued because it was alleged that California’s language diversity, mostly Spanish, created a problem. However, Carter claims that after the 16-year ban, California
has “squandered” their economic and cultural resources. Stating that millions of opportunities were lost and that many Spanish-speaking immigrants lost the opportunity to learn or retain Spanish literacy skills, while many California born Latinos were unable to read and write in Spanish. From the time Carter wrote this article, California state senator Ricardo Lara proposed to repeal the bill, to which Carter mentions its importance due to the surplus in the population of the Latin community, surpassing that of whites. Carter continues by pointing out that the restriction of language policies has been found in many educational settings aside from Proposition 227. He mentions that in the mid-19th century there was an establishment of English-only schools to “acculturate” Native Americans and that during World War I many German-language schools were closed.
Carter then quotes in an interview the experience of an elderly woman that dealt with segregation in a school from Texas.
Carter then describes that restrictive language policies still occur today due to the common misunderstanding of Spanish speakers. Carter presents the misunderstandings in the form of four myths: Latinos aren’t interested and cannot learn English, speaking Spanish hinders their ability to speak English, children will learn Spanish at home, and that Spanish is taking over schools. Carter disproves each myth by providing factual evidence and personal experience. For instance, Carter mentions that social science data shows that Latinos learn English at a fast rate and that some evidence suggests that policies restricting a student’s usage of a home language affect literacy skill in English. Carter also mentions that he has yet encountered a young person that refuses to learn English. Making language policies such as Proposition 227 nothing but problematic. Carter concludes his argument by stating that Spanish is an economy and cultural resource that should be cultivated not dismantled, and should, therefore, be provided as an educational policy along with
English.