By Padres Unidos
DENVER, COLO. — On November 5, 2002, a broad-based alliance of grassroots organizations, individuals, churches, unions, elected officials, and coalitions united to defeat Ron Unz's "English for the Children" initiative.
Nationally, this was the first time Unz's initiative was defeated as a ballot issue. Ron Unz, chair of English for the Children, is a California multimillionaire software developer and former Republican candidate for governor. Unz launched a national movement to eliminate bilingual education across the country by amending state constitutions, with the ultimate goal being to amend the Constitution of the United States. He also spearheaded the defeat of bilingual education in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, but his xenophobic anti-immigrant campaign met with fierce resistance in Colorado.
On November 5, more than 56 percent of all Colorado voters opposed the anti-bilingual amendment and voted "No on 31." Among other things, the amendment to the Constitution would have given all students only nine months to learn English before being placed into all-English classes. For many, this would mean a lifetime of being illiterate. And therein lies the importance of "holding the line" on bilingual education and defeating the likes of Ron Unz: Illiteracy and inequity in education translates into political and economic apartheid for millions of immigrant students.
Historically, Colorado is a conservative state and has a weak track record concerning bilingual education and language rights. Denver's public schools, with the largest bilingual student population, have been under a court ordered decree since 1984 — demanding compliance with federal policy on bilingual education. They remain out of compliance to this day. In 1987, voters passed an "English Is the Official Language of the State of Colorado" amendment to the constitution, mandating all state business be done in "English only." In 1992, a complaint filed by Padres Unidos with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) resulted in the Denver Public Schools being found guilty of "Discrimination Based on Race in Bilingual Education." Because of the OCR findings and the creation of dual-language schools across the state, Colorado received national attention and became a target for local and national anti-bilingual proponents. It was in this context that Ron Unz chose to target Colorado for his anti-bilingual "English for the Children" campaign.
Critical to the success of the campaign was everyone's ability to unite around "No on 31" while also recognizing the need to approach various constituencies differently. In other words, depending on their conditions and concerns, different groups were approached with different reasons for voting against Amendment 31.