"A Failed Path"

When Education Secretary William Bennett stood up to speak on bilingual education last week in Manhattan, everyone should have known what was coming. During eight months in office, the tough-talking Secretary has taken on everyone from students to Congress to the Supreme Court. This time he unloaded against the bilingual learning programs that have cost the Federal Government $1.7 billion in 17 years, calling them "a failed path." He was particularly rough on the policy of giving foreign-language-speaking students schoolwork in their own tongue, rather than teaching them English as quickly as possible. "As fellow citizens, we need a common language," said Bennett. "In the United States, that language is English."

The Secretary indicated his department would use its regulatory authority to help local schools with their own flexible instruction systems, and intended to urge Congress to remove the present 4% limit on federal aid for alternate teaching methods that emphasize English. But at first blush, Congress was not buy- ing. Gus Hawkins, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, seemed downright offended: "Congress worked hard last year to draft what we consider a good bilingual-education bill," he said, adding, "We fear Mr. Bennett's real intent is to gut the bilingual program over the long run."

Though many educators agree with Bennett's latest broadside, it stirred angry reactions. Said Ralph Robinett, administrator of bilingual education in Dade County, Fla.: "It is the old story of the power structure being out of tune with the ethnic makeup of the community." Nathan Quinones, a Hispanic and chancellor of New York City's public schools, where 86,000 students are in bilingual programs, was quietly unhappy. Bennett's emphasis on English, he said, "implies that if you do anything other than what is professed by Bennett . . . you may not be American."