The Battle for the Use of Spanish
In addition to being in segregated schools, Mexican American students often were not allowed to speak Spanish in school. To ensure that teachers would deliver instruction in English, states passed laws to that effect. In 1918 Texas made it a criminal offense to use any language other than English for instruction. Often, students were forbidden to use Spanish at any time while they were in school. In the last half of the 19th century, Mexican Americans sent their children to Catholic or nonsectarian private schools, both of which were more likely to provide bilingual instruction, to escape the anti-Mexican attitudes of public schools (Spring, 2011).
Many Mexican American children were not attending school at the beginning of the 20th century, in part, because farmers were not willing to release them from work in the field to attend school. On the other hand, many school officials wanted them in schools to Americanize them and rid them of their cultures and language (Spring, 2011).
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Concerned about discrimination against Mexican American students in public schools, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) called for bilingual instruction and the maintenance of Mexican cultural traditions in schools as early as 1929. However, the English-only laws were not repealed until 1968 when the federal government supported bilingual education as an option for teaching English-language learners (Spring, 2011). As the federal policy has moved away from support of bilingual education in recent years, some states have now returned to laws prohibiting bilingual education and the use of any language other than English for classroom instruction.
Mexican American families were fighting for the right to attend white schools at the same time that African Americans had turned to the courts for assistance. In the 1930s the Texas courts upheld the right of school boards to provide segregated education for Mexican Americans. The first breakthrough for integration occurred with the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster School District decision that required a California school district to allow a Mexican American girl to attend the white school. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) was established in 1967 to continue suing for the civil rights and equality of Mexican American students. Court cases since then have focused on discriminatory practices in the funding of schools, the sole use of English in classrooms, and the disproportionate placement of Spanish-speaking children in special education classes as a result of biased tests or tests being given in English.
Equity for Puerto Ricans
Education for students in Puerto Rico has been interrelated with a history of occupation by the United States. Puerto Rico had just received its autonomy from Spain when it came under the control of the United States as part of the spoils (along with the Philippines and Guam) from the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century. With the 1900 Foraker Act, Congress established a colonial government to replace military rule in Puerto Rico and appointed the first U.S. Commissioner of Education for Puerto Rico. Just as with American Indians, the federal policy was to Americanize Puerto Ricans through education. Because the language of instruction was to be English and many Puerto Rican teachers spoke only Spanish, teachers from the United States were hired. Not only were students expected to learn English; they were also supposed to learn American ways. Educational policies required celebration of the U.S. patriotic holidays, such as the Fourth of July. Students were required to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag and study U.S. heroes. Local textbooks were replaced with U.S. textbooks. When new teachers applied for a teaching certificate, their test included an English examination (Spring, 2011).
Puerto Ricans were not interested in becoming Americans and losing their own native language and culture. In 1912, the Puerto Rican Teachers Association began to defend Spanish as the language of instruction. When a student at San Juan’s Central High School was expelled in 1915 for collecting signatures in support of instruction in Spanish, a student strike was sparked (Spring, 2011). Calls for nationalism and independence were common. Congress granted Puerto Ricans citizenship in 1917, which obligated them to serve in the military, but did not grant the right to vote in elections.
Tensions increased in the 1920s when a Puerto Rican who supported the United States’ assimilation policies became the Commissioner of Education. He pressed his predecessor’s policies even further. He required seniors to pass an English examination before they could graduate. He banned school newspapers in Spanish. Teachers were required to use English in teacher meetings and informal discussions with students. Protests by teachers, professors, and college students expanded. College students were expelled for participating in anti-American marches and professors were warned to stop supporting student protests (Spring, 2011).
The efforts to change U.S. educational policies in Puerto Rico resulted in the Padin Reform of 1934, which restricted English instruction to high schools. Spanish could be used at other levels. However, textbooks continued to be printed in English. After the Teachers Association had successfully lobbied the Puerto Rican legislature to pass a bill requiring the use of Spanish, President Harry Truman vetoed it. After Puerto Rico was granted commonwealth status in 1951, Puerto Ricans gained greater control of their school systems, restoring Spanish as the language of instruction (Spring, 2011).
Asian Americans
The first Chinese migrants arrived in California in the 1850s to join the gold rush as free laborers. They faced a great deal of hostility and discrimination from the dominant white population. The courts considered Chinese immigrants as having the same status as American Indians, and policies related to citizenship continued to discriminate against Asians. It was not until 1943 that the Chinese Exclusion Law was rescinded, allowing Chinese immigrants the right to become naturalized citizens (Spring, 2011).
When the court ruled in 1885 that native-born Mamie Tape had equal access to public schooling, the California legislature responded by allowing school districts to establish segregated schools for Asian Americans. By 1905, the segregated system in San Francisco was broken as Chinese youths were admitted to the regular city high school (Spring, 2011). Southern courts retained Asian American children in segregated schools attended primarily by African Americans. The family of a Chinese American girl argued that she was not black and therefore should be able to attend the white school. However, the court ruled in 1924 that she was not white and gave schools the authority to determine the race of their students (Spring, 2011).
After the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, the number of Asian immigrants began to grow. Schools in cities like San Francisco were faced with a growing number of students who spoke languages other than English. Because the language of instruction was English, parents worried that their children were not able to achieve at the high academic levels they expected. They sued the San Francisco school system and, in 1974, won the right to have their first language used in instruction in Lau v. Nichols. The court said “under state imposed standards, there was 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” (Lau v. Nichols, 1974).