Background: Analytical updated

Education is the base that America is set upon. President Obama has said during his national address to America’s school children that, “What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.” Education today has progressed significantly over the years. Everyday new strategies and new methods of teaching are thought of to better the quality of education. In 1980, the US Department of Education was founded with many goals intended towards bettering overall education; one goal for all students was, “assuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.” Looking back at the 1950s, America was merely beginning towards progressing its school systems. During this time as well, America seemed like the place to be. Many of the Hispanics groups such as Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans were migrating to the United States in look for better opportunities. Many Puerto Ricans came during World War II while Cubans came for safety since Cuba was under dictatorship. A lot of the Mexicans were here because of the Bracero Program. This program was an agreement set between Mexico and the United States in 1947. The agreement was that Mexico was to send agricultural workers to the Southwest to work in the United States. An estimated 142,000 workers came with their families. When the program ended in 1964, many of these workers stayed in the United States. Because the number of Hispanics immigrants was increasing, bilingual education came to a rise. Many of these children were non-English speaking and were attending public schools here in the US. These students were only speaking in their native language which at the time was primarily Spanish; it was the only language they knew how to understand and speak. The students were forced to go to school but once there, they did not understand much since everything was in English. Many did not have any previous knowledge of the English language so the concern was how does a student learn when they do not understand the teacher. In 1968, Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act because they recognized that “there are large and growing numbers of children and youth of limited-English proficiency, many of whom have a cultural heritage that differs from that of their English-proficient peers.” Congress in the act said, “in order to ensure equal educational opportunity for all children and youth and to promote educational excellence, to assist State and local educational agencies, institutions of high education and community-based organizations to build their capacity to establish, implement, and sustain programs of instruction for children and youth limited English proficiency.” But this act was debated carefully. After four or five years after the act was carried out, problems arose because according to Ron Unz, an anti-bilingual supporter, said “only 5 or 6% of all students that didn’t know English, actually learned English.” The goal of the act was to make sure all of these students learned English so bilingual education had no place in the public schools in the United States. James Lyons on the other hand, said that “bilingual education has made it possible for children to have continuous development in their native language, while they’re in the process of learning English. Because of the number of Hispanics now living in the United States has vastly grown and, according to the 2007 American Community Survey “there are 45 million Hispanics who speak Spanish as a first and second language and 6 million Spanish speaking students,” the Department of Education has stuck to its overall goal and has helped bring upon many improvements to bilingual education programs. Bilingual education is still needed since more and more immigrants are coming to the United States and now students can be comfortable in the classroom while speaking their language yet still learning English. The Department of Education has helped Hispanics students have success in their basic education.