Article printed in "Mary's Corner" on the Katy Citizen Watchdog website on July 25,  2007 (Updated March 30, 2011)

Are Your Children Getting Ready To Be Guinea Pigs, Again?

By Mary McGarr

[Please note that Representative Rob Eissler was primarily responsible for the implementation of this really bad idea (TWI).  Representative Eissler was the Chairman of the Education Committee, but he was also a staunch supporter of Representative Strauss.  Eissler was defeated and tossed out of office by Steve Toth who had 57% of the vote in 2012!  Representative Toth is now running for the Texas Senate, and I hope he wins! [He didn't!  What a shame.] Anyone who is so responsible for getting rid of Eissler deserves to go straight to the top!]


In a recent Houston Chronicle front page article (July 9, 2007 Dual-Language Classes in Texas Spark Debate) , Gary Scharrer of the Chronicle’s Austin Bureau described the components of recently passed House Bill 2814, sponsored by Representative Rob Eissler, Republican which “created a six-year pilot program that will test a dual-language plan in up to 10 Texas public school districts and 30 campuses.” Other authors of the bill were Representative Rene Oliveira, Democrat, Representative Ryan Guillen, Democrat, and co-author, Representative Michael Villarreal, Democrat.

The idea is to put children having difficulty speaking English into classes made up of half non English speakers and half native English speakers so that both groups of children will ultimately be bilingual and supposedly “ biliterate” (to quote from the Chronicle article.)

 Before I say anything else, can someone tell me what the students who spend half their time learning Spanish give up in the way of the regular curriculum in order to do this?  And don't tell me they aren't being slowed down by having to do the regular curriculum in Spanish--just like the Hispanic students are slowed down, but the one group loses more than the other group of the goal is for everyone to learn in the English language which is the language of our Country and the language in which commerce is conducted.

The Senate version of this bill was sponsored by Senator Leticia Van de Putte, a Democrat from San Antonio, and she is quoted as saying that she knows “that dual-language works, but that we have failed to articulate the benefits of
placing native English speakers in dual-language programs.”

Representative Debbie Riddle, a Republican from Tomball, who is opposed to the project, stated that she thinks “the purpose behind this [bill] is to help bring up to speed Spanish-speaking kids while turning other kids into guinea pigs.”
She pointed out that while she has seven grandchildren younger than six, they are not “grand-guinea pigs.”

The Senate voted 28-2 for the bill and the House voted 106-34 for the bill. No Democrat opposed the bill.

Representative Eissler noted that opponents of his bill “believe immigrants need to bend to us rather than us to them.”

HELLO REPRESENTATIVE EISSLER!!!!! Glad you made that comment, and I hope you understood what you just said.

On the opposite side of YOUR opinion, there are those of us who believe that people who want to live in our country need to come here legally, and they need to speak English if they intend to stay. I don’t think you’re going to find too many people of your political party who would argue with my sentiments here, other than the illegal immigrants among us. If you'll just put those students in any kindergarten/first grade in Texas, they'll learn to speak English in no time, just like Mexican immigrants have done for decades before people like you dreamed up expensive "bilingual" programs. And in their defense, those who are here illegally, while waiting for legal status to occur, will be much better off if they learn to speak fluently the language of the Country in which they hope to live and prosper! Learning English is a win-win proposition for Hispanics!

According to the Chronicle, the Commissioner of Education will choose up to 10 school districts and 30 schools to participate in the project. The first year will be limited to hiring and training teachers and establishing parental and community support for the program.

So why am I writing about this program? It’s because I believe that Katy ISD may be behind this bill and that the process for putting such a program in place has already started here.

In a Watchdog Open Record Request for all the questions and answers of the April, September, October and November 2006 meetings of the KISD Faculty Advisory Council meetings, I spotted this statement:

Question #7 on Page 6 of the September 2006 FAC Questions/Answers:

"Other districts have dual language programs beginning in Kinder [sic] and continuing up through fifth grade to make the students bilingual and biliterate [sic] in English and Spanish. Has Katy ever considered this type of program as
an option? KJH

This school year, the district implemented a One-Way Dual Language program model for bilingual Pre-K and K students. This program provides LEP (Limited English Proficient) students who qualified for bilingual program services and who are native Spanish speakers, with 50% of their instruction in English and 50% in Spanish. Both languages are given equal time and treatment for all subject areas, where instruction is provided in English/Spanish alternatively.

For example, in a two week cycle, students are taught a spiraling curriculum that progresses from Spanish to English as follows:

Monday          Tuesday         Wednesday         Thursday         Friday

Spanish            English           Spanish                English         Spanish

English            Spanish           English                 Spanish        English

[Got that? Actually I don‘t think anyone believes that this first part is a bad idea. The more often Spanish speaking children speak English, the sooner they‘ll learn ]

"Additionally, the LOTE Department was awarded a FLAP (Foreign Language Assistance Program) grant whereby we will begin researching a Two-Way Dual Language program model that will not only service native Spanish speakers but
native English speakers as well. A committee of parents, teachers, administrators, and community members will be assembled to research and study the effectiveness of a program such as this and if the district finds it as a viable program, we will move forward with planning and preparation for program implementation in 2007-2008 at grade K at two bilingual sites. A class will be composed of 50% native English speakers and 50% native Spanish speakers. In subsequent years, the program will phase-in grade 1 and will continue to phase in other grade levels each year thereafter."

Looks to me like Katy ISD got the jump on Representative Eissler’s bill. I’m guessing this is another time when a school district (ours) went to a state representative who is known for wanting to please just about everybody and got sponsorship of their proposal without too much trouble. Nothing beats just circumventing that committee that was going to be convened to “study” the idea and just going ahead and creating a law and funding and getting on with it. If one looks at who testified at the Senate and House committee hearings, it was the usual suspects--all those NGO’s that lobby for school districts (TASB, TASA etc.) while the rest of us are not paying attention.

Where was the public discussion in our own community about this program? Where is the “transparency” everyone is talking about?

If our students want to learn a language, they should be allowed to pick which one with the help of their parents and not have any language foisted upon them. And the rest of us don't need to be paying taxes to support such nonsense in kindergarten/first grade.  I believe the Board has in the past voted down a proposal to teach Spanish to elementary school students during the school day.

Regardless, educrats don’t need to be telling the rest of us what to teach our children. Sensible parents want them to teach their children to read using phonics, to teach them plain math without foo foo problem solving antics, to teach them American and Texas history, to teach them science and quit playing with science experiments that are meaningless, and to teach them discipline and respect for their teachers and fellow students. That’s all they have to do.

The school district needs to stop undermining parents’ beliefs and culture and using our children as guinea pigs for social experimentation.

© 2007 by Mary McGarr. All rights reserved.