Andy Martin vows to abolish bilingual education

NEWS FROM:
ANDY MARTIN
Republican for U. S. Senator
Suite 4406
30 E. Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611-4723
(312) 440-4124

ATTENTION: ASSIGNMENT/DAYBOOK EDITORS

ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEWS CONFERENCE

U. S. SENATE CANDIDATE ANDY MARTIN VOWS TO END BILINGUAL EDUCATION, CALLS BILINGUAL PROGRAMS A “GOVERNMENT-CREATED GHETTO” THAT HAS IMPRISONED MILLIONS OF HELPLESS CHILDREN

(CHICAGO)(August 24, 2007) Republican U. S. Senate candidate Andy Martin will hold a news conference Friday, August 24th at 1:00 P.M. to promise that when he is elected to the Senate he will end bilingual education. Martin calls bilingual education programs a “government-created ghetto that has imprisoned millions of helpless children.”

Martin has a national reputation for supporting official English (http://www.englishforamerica.org) and opposing bilingual education. He was a guest on the former Phil Donahue Show because of his efforts to combat bilingual education.

Unlike other candidates who espouse solutions without any history of advancing the issues, Martin has a long and documented history of fighting to make English our official language and to abolish bilingual education. “Durbin’s opposition researchers can choke on my record of fighting for the civil rights of children,” says Martin. “Every child has a civil right to be taught in English and to learn to speak, write and read English with sufficient proficiency to become a productive adult in our high-tech, world-competitive society.

“I was bilingual from birth,” says Martin, “and the first words I heard were probably in Greek. But I was blessed with a family that spoke English and a mother who encouraged learning. She did not fail me. But the federal government has failed our local schools. As U. S. senator I will not fail children who speak another language at home: I will expect them to speak English in school, only English.

“As U. S. senator, I promise to abolish bilingual education.

“Bilingual education has become a cancer growing inside our public school systems. Public schools have become more concerned with the politics of bilingualism than with advancing the education of children.

“Millions of children have been imprisoned in a government-created linguistic ghetto because of well-meaning but ultimately counterproductive efforts to provide help in other languages when what they really need is equal treatment and equal expectations. English should be the only language in our public education system.

“As the U. S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed, there is no room for ‘separate but equal’ in our society. You end separation to enforce equality. There is no equality with other languages in the United States. People are free to speak what they want in their private lives. But as a nation we are committed to educating children in the language they will need to master to lead successful lives.

“Esther Cepada’s story in the Sun-Times today (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/523269,CST-NWS-CEPEDA23.article) is chilling and depressing.

“When second and third generation children in America can’t speak, read and write good English, America has failed these children. We have failed them by treating them as second-class citizens and by branding them with a badge of inferiority as unable to mainstream in English.

“I know families that have come from Eastern Europe and, yes, these children do not enter ‘special’ programs. These kids end up speaking normal English within a year. They continue to converse with parents in their mother tongue at home. There is nothing wrong with that. I can still speak passable Greek. I love languages; but most of all I love the land that received my family and taught them English.

“Bilingual programs fuel resentment at the waste in money, disruption in faculties, and loss of promising young lives. We have become a society that ‘cares’ so much we are ultimately uncaring for the needs of these children.

“Those who seek to abolish bilingual programs are civil rights advocates. They are fighting for the civil rights of children to be treated as equals and to be expected to perform in English. As Cepeda says, English is language of success.

“When children born in America can’t speak English, we have failed.”

NEWS CONFERENCE DETAILS:

WHO: U. S. Senate candidate Andy Martin

WHERE: Southeast corner of Wabash and Huron Streets,
Chicago, (St. James Cathedral)

WHEN: Friday, August 24, 2007 1:00 P.M.

WHAT: Andy Martin

MEDIA
CONTACT: (312) 440-4124

WEBSITE: AndyforUSSenator.com

E-MAIL: AndyforUSSenator@aol.com
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Chicago-based Internet journalist, broadcaster and media critic Andy Martin is the Executive Editor and publisher of ContrarianCommentary.com. © Copyright by Andy Martin 2007. Martin covers regional, national and world events with forty years of personal experience. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. Columns also posted at ContrarianCommentary.blogspot.com; contrariancommentary.wordpress.com. Comments? E-mail: AndyMart20@aol.com. Media contact: (866) 706-2639. Web sites: ContrarianCommentary.com.