By: Sage Nicholson

In Arizona, two Latina teachers are fighting for the rights of bilingual students, despite an education system that says all education must be English-focused. According to the Bilingual Research Journal, there has been an increase of bilingual students in grades K-12 in the past 10 years. However, Arizona schools still teach emergent bilinguals through an English-focused lens, which causes many students to lose their home language, and the schools to be unable to communicate with the students’ families. The Bilingual Research Journal says the two teachers featured in this article actively advocate for bilingual student’s ability to learn and speak in not only English, but their home language as well by arguing that language is a human right.

Arizona has a long-standing history of creating laws that reinforce English as the primary language of the state. Proposition 203, passed by voters in 2000, says Arizona has a moral duty to teach all children English in school, no matter their home language. For that reason, the Arizona Department of Education mandates that English education be the focus of all teachers and schools.

Arizona is not the only state to struggle with how to help their bilingual students succeed. In Oregon, the Annual Report to the Legislature in 2011 reported that there was a large achievement gap between Hispanic students and Caucasian students. Hispanic students, according to the report, have been steadily increasing since 1990, and the achievement gap has been closing. The report also states that since 1990, bilingual programs in Oregon schools have been rising sharply.

Héctor Tobar, an accredited author and UO professor, grew up in Southern California in a bilingual, Latino family. In The Spanish Lesson I Never Received in School, Héctor Tobar writes about the lack of bilingual education he received as a child going through the education system in Southern California. As the son of two Guatemalan immigrants, Tobar received an exclusively English education and says he was unable to speak Spanish past a second grade level, creating a disconnect between him and his parents.