Bilingual Education

Meyer v. State of Nebraska

Meyer verses the State of Nebraska was an important case in the history of bilingual education. Robert Meyer was a teacher in Nebraska who was guilty of “violating a 1919 statute” by teaching a ten year old child a biblical story in German (“Meyer V. State,” par. 1). The law clearly stated that “No person, individually or as a teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language than the English language.” It goes on to state that once a child is certified for graduation by the county superintendent then the child may be taught a second language. The penalty was twenty-five to a one hundred dollar fine or up to 30 days in prison (“U.S. Supreme Court,” par. 2). Meyer lost the case to the state but won seven-to-two in the Supreme Court (“Meyer V. State,” Par. 3).

Miami Cubans

After the revolution there were approximately 100,000 Cubans who had moved into the Miami area (Heit, 2009, par. 2). These Cubans established a private bilingual school and eventually a bilingual public school (“Master Timeline,” 1959 section, par. 1). This was the first contemporary bilingual education program. Many schools before the 1800’s that claimed to be bilingual were really just schools taught in another language that had an English class; they were bilingual schools by today’s standards (Cerda & Hernandez, 2006, par.1).

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, was a crucial act for bilingual education. This law “outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” This made it illegal to discriminate against anyone in “public facilities, in government, and in employment.” This opened the door for educational rights (“Civil Rights Act 1964,” par. 3). However, even through these new rights the poor children still wouldn’t have the same educational opportunities.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

Since the lower class children needed help in having equal rights the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was established. Money is distributed through state education agencies. (“Elementary and Secondary,” par. 2). The money is to support “educators’ professional development, instructional materials, resources to support educational programs, and parental involvement promotion.” This is still an active law that provides accessibility to a good public education for any underprivileged child. However, this still left minorities who didn’t speak English very well or at all, behind (“K12 Academics,” ESEA section, par. 1).

Bilingual Education Act of 1968

This brings us to the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 where the Federal Government funded bilingual education for the first time. All programs were required to make programs accessible to language minorities by giving "full access to the learning environment, the curriculum, special services and assessment in a meaningful way (Schugurensky, 2002, par. 2)." The Bilingual Education Act was amended in 1974 after the Lau v. Nichols case. (“K12 Academics,” Bilingual Education Act section, par. 4)

Lau v. Nichols/Bilingual Education Act Ammendments

The case of Lau v. Nichols regarded many Chinese students who felt they weren’t getting an adequate education in the San Francisco school district due to their lack of fluency in the English language. There were about 1800 Chinese students who felt this disadvantage in the school district (“Lau v. Nichols,” par. 4). Justice William O. Douglas’ decision was "there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education (Schugurensky, 2002, par. 5)." The amendments to the Bilingual Education Act was redefining the “Bilingual Education Program,” setup objectives, generate support centers, and “capacity building efforts (“K12 Academics,” Bilingual Education Act Section, par. 6).”

National Association for Bilingual Education

Of course bilingual education needed a fundamental support group. This is where the National Association for Bilingual Education comes into play. This group was made after the BEA was approved in 1968. Their goal is to “advocate for our nations Bilingual and English Language Learners and families and to cultivate a multilingual multicultural society by supporting and promoting policy, programs, pedagogy, research, and professional development that yield academic success, value native language, lead to English proficiency, and respect cultural and linguistic diversity (“NABE,” Mission Section, par. 3).”