Introduction
The report is about construction work on Indian reservations which have been found to be having oils reserves. California Indian council is however against the idea and issues to the government, a statement with conditions that further exploration will only continue if the state will agree to approve and offer bilingual education to people living in this area, who are the Native American Indians.
It is against the government to forcefully evict these people since they have ownership rights, while at the same time the government is divided about the issue of offering bilingual education since it fears this could spark pressure from other communities who may demand the same.
Given the budget constraints that will come with this, the government must come out strongly to balance between its interests and that of the Native Americans inhabiting this area. Brown should therefore organize talks with the Native Americans to solve the issue amicably.
Information Relevant for Talks
The following information should be well tackled in the talk, The policies to be adopted for mutual benefit, how the oil project will benefit the Native Americans particularly those who own the lands, steps the government will take to ensure no private land is lost without compensation, how to address the bilingual education demand raised by the California Indian council, what might happen if the anticipated oil turns out not to be as much as expected and the budgetary implications that will follow suit. The government should also ensure it comes up with mechanisms to ensure what is agreed upon becomes biding.
Summary of the Facts Presented
The total population of Americans Indians combined with Alaska Natives of various races amount to 4.8 million. North America region only has a population of over 31 million. The language commonly spoken by the Americans living in the north have greatly changed and very few people still speak the native language, these changes have made the language to reveal not only that of the indigenous people but also that of European colonization too.
The languages that remain widely spoken in North America are thus; English, French, Spanish and other Creole languages. In California State, the most commonly spoken languages, in addition to the above mentioned, are; Chimeriko, Salinan, Esselen, Persian, Tagalong, Washo, Karuk, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, American and many others (Poul 36).
Bilingual education is the aspect of teaching learners the educational content in different languages that is, two different languages. Preposition 227 passed in 1998 on June 2nd, ended bilingual education. There are only some little exceptions which again have been replaced by Structured English raptness. Only English Proficient students were to be educated in a one year span.
Analysis of the Problem
The major problem faced by Brown is how to provide bilingual education without necessarily contravening the law which outlawed and put to an end bilingual education. Since this is the only way to ensure the California Indian councils are satisfied and the exploration continues, brown has no choice but to offer what the council demands to get access to what he wants.
He is also faced with a challenge of ensuring the minority tribes understand the reasons for his actions and why this facility will only be available for the Native American Indians.
Policies to be adopted for the Arguments
Since there is right to education for everyone, be it an English learner or not, there should be no form of discrimination. The only way to do this is to ensure that those who do not understand English are taught in a way that they can also cope up with the rest, this can only be provided through bilingual education.
Going by the statistics, there are over 5.5 millions English learners in the United States public schools, and this number has been continually growing. By eliminating bilingual education we will be cutting off the major student population (Bruce 252). Therefore, we must find a means of incorporating these groups and give them the rights they deserve.
Brown should support bilingual education by using principles which underlie the general language acquisition. Some of the principles that will assist him include; a comprehensive input assist in acquiring a second language-this comprehensive input must be the native language, background knowledge usually makes a second language more comprehensible, research has proven that; development of the first language possesses cognitive and practical advantages (Keiko & Monica 176). The first language also helps in promoting a sense of healthy biculturalism (Poul 413).
Brown should adopt a policy that supports cultural conservation. This will be adopted by arguing that; Since California is the majority linguistically diverse state in the whole world, it is loosing its history and rich heritage particularly with regard to the indigenous languages. The only way to revive this is to introduce bilingual education which not only assists in acquisition of skills but also helps in maintaining and continuity of the Native language. This would be very important in maintaining origin and culture (Corson 213).
Recommendations
By forcefully evicting people living on the oil rich reserves, Brown risks being charged against violation of rights, the only option that he has if he wants to continue exploring the oil reserves is to offer bilingual education to the Native American Indians. He however must have facts to protect himself since the decision is very challenging because, once this is implemented the government will have to incur additional funding and there will also be many criticisms by other individuals.
To successfully pass his point through, Brown should have good knowledge of education rights and how he can justify his actions that he is still operating under the law. To do this, he must promise education to the Native Indian tribes in California.
Brown should convince the other tribes that, being that majority of the Native Indians are English learners and that, according to their population, they are the majority people affected in education sector, and they constitute a unique and special group that needs quick and very special attention.
This will seclude them from the other minority tribes. While dealing with this situation, the other tribes should also be promised that, once the situation stabilizes they will also be considered. This is because when a problem occurs, it is justifiable to start handling the major and key areas then summarizing with the less affected areas.
This will be a great defense given that it will be backed by the population numbers which are clearly available. Native Indians form over 3.1 million of the 5.5 million English learners in the United States (Trujillo 32).
Concerning the funding of the bilingual education, Brown should show facts of how the anticipated exploration is aimed at raising adequate funds capable of funding education and contribute to economic development as well. Through this, economists should provide estimates capable of convincing the general public of the advantages of exploration and how this will contribute towards bilingual education without necessarily involving much of the states funds.
Pros and Cons of Information Presented
Section 15-753 provides an exception to English teaching; it thus gives room for bilingual education. Those who are English learners should be educated through English Immersion for a period not more than one year. This challenges the bilingual education offering since, it limits the years to three. Through the three years, one might not have attained full understanding of English; this will create major conflicts between Brown and the Native councils.
Since elimination of bilingual language has in the recent past shown an increase in performance and total score of students, that is students under English immersion recorded greater performance than those under bilingual programs, there was an upward trend shown in Stanford-9. It is evident that, bilingual programs do not work best for the learners.
It is better if it is done away with. On the other hand, people hold that, bilingual education helps students in learning Basic English skills (Bruce 378). However, if they are used for more than three years, then they are ineffective. The question of how long they should be used remains a challenge because no one will be very keen to count the years and thus put an end to its use in learning institutions, some teachers given this loophole, will continue using it way beyond three years.
Because of the exceptions in the proposition 227, Brown has a loophole for exercising his decisions regarding bilingual education without being seen as a violator of the law. He can also support his actions as a way of protecting culture of the Natives to make sure that the diversity is reduced within California and its environs.
Approach to be Pursued
Brown should consider offering the bilingual education demand to the Indians since this is the only option available. If he does not settle for this, he will risk infringing property rights of forcefully evicting people. Since proportion 227 has an exception, he should use this to his advantage to ensure that, he proves to the general public that he still acts within the law.
Because the native Indians falls under the category of the English learners who are privileged to bilingual education before acquisition of English skills, the law will act on his advantage. Section 15-753, gives an exception that, English learners children should be passed through bilingual education before they completely learn English (Poul 72).
Citing from Education code section 220, Brown can support the funding of bilingual education by arguing that, since the law prohibits discrimination on ethnic group, sex, religion, national origin or physical disability, from benefiting from state financial assistance (Keiko and Annette 47).
This means that, both the Indians who are not English proficient should also have the right to facilities just like the other English proficient students. They should therefore benefit from funds by the government and the state should finance their choice of learning without any form of discrimination. This section will act to the advantage of Brown when it comes to financing bilingual education. It justifies the use of state finance in education purposes.
The person who is eligible to file a case against financial support to any kind of education programs by the state, should prove that, the state has discriminated against; race, sex, color, disability, age or national origin.
This is not easy because, for anyone to file a case against Brown for funding, bilingual education, he will have to present substantial information which in this case is not available since these people are members of the state who have equal rights to education just like the other citizens. It therefore beats logic that they should be accorded the attention and support that they need when it comes to education.
Brown should also tackle the issues via dialogue approach where, he calls the council members in a series of meetings in order to make the terms and slight variations deemed necessary. This will ensure wholesome agreement and prevent future problems which may result from the action agreed upon.
Conclusion
It is evident that, the use of bilingual language is both beneficial to the learners and will also benefit the state as well since exploration of the oils will continue and this will not only benefit the government but the natives as well. Language diversity in California will also have been eliminated since; bilingual education will promote the use of local languages in education.
Therefore, it is important and necessary that Brown provides bilingual education to the Native Americans (Indians). Because of the exceptions in the law, the state will not have contravened the law but it will be operating within its limits.
Works Cited
Bruce, Jahensen. The Native Peoples of North America: A History. New York, NY: Rutgers University press publishers, 2006. Print.
Corson, David. Language Diversity and Education. New York, NY: Routledge Publishers. 2000. Print.
Keiko, Koda and Annette, Monica. Learning to Read across Languages: Cross- Linguistic Relationships in First- and Second-Language Literacy Development. Boston: Routledge Publishers, 2007. Print.
Poul, Flethcer. Language Acquisition: Studies in First Language Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University press publishers, 1986. Print.
Trujillo, Monica. “Bilingual Education in California: Is It Working?” Penn McNair Research Journal, 1.1 (2007): 13-56. Print.