In recent years, several states have used initiatives to enact statewide mandates requiring children to learn English by being taught only in English, without instruction in their native language. Using Massachusetts as a case study, this Note argues that this way of deciding the issue—a voter initiative that mandates a uniform method of instruction—is not an appropriate way to make language education policy. Language education is not the type of issue that should be decided via direct democracy because (1) direct democracy does not give adequate protection to minorities, (2) it exacerbates the tendency to make decisions about sensitive immigration issues on the basis of rhetoric, emotional reactions, and campaign politics, and (3) it gives uninformed drafters and voters the power to make complex policy decisions implementing particular educational methods about which they know very little. Further, mandating a uniform method of instruction is undesirable because the empirical literature on which methods of language education are most effective is so divided and confused that it is illogical to mandate the use of only one method. Local education administrators should instead be left free to experiment within the spectrum of language education programs. Also, by mandating a uniform method of instruction for all children in all communities, the initiative does not have the flexibility to recognize and accommodate the many legitimate interests at stake, including individual children and their families, minority groups, local communities, and the democratic interest of the general public. Finally, the Note examines a better way to decide this question, with a system that gives schools freedom to experiment and respond to the needs of particular communities, and that gives parents more input and choice.
LawReview
