Chapter 5: Reimagining the Educational Environment in California for Emergent Bilinguals: The Implications of the Passage of Proposition 58

This chapter examines the recent struggle for bilingual education in California, from the passage of Proposition 227 (English for the Children) in 1997, to the more recent passage of Proposition 58 (SB 1174 [Chapter 753, Statutes of 2014]). Both initiatives were approved by California voters who overwhelmingly supported each proposal, the former which severely limited primary language instruction in schools, and the latter which sought to rescind much of the former law, expanding bilingual and dual language instruction in schools. We draw on Ruiz’s (1984) orientations in language policy framework to examine Proposition 227 and the growing resistance amongst educators interested in employing a language as right/resource approach with emergent bilinguals. We highlight the role of educators and policymakers as part of a movement aimed at shifting the language policy landscape in California from a language as problem framing, to a framework of language as right and language as resource orientation for emergent bilinguals. This shift, we argue, grew from frustration over the difficulty caused by Proposition 227 for educators to promote or institute any kind of bilingual program despite a growing body of research that maintained and touted the benefits of bilingual education, throughout the 2000s (Gándara & Contreras, 2009; Gutiérrez, Asato, Santos, & Gotana, 2002).