FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:  NICK BUFORD
DATE:  February 5, 1997
PHONE:  (916) 445-9781
SUBJECT:  Ebonics, 800 words

Dear Editor,

 Workers' tax dollars may be wasted on many things in
California.  But the Legislature in Sacramento should not waste a
single tax dollar on Ebonics instruction in California's public
schools.  Ebonics is an unacceptable dumbing-down of English
standards that legitimizes academic underachievement by creating a role for slang in education.

President Kennedy once said that "A child miseducated is a
child lost."  Ebonics has fast become a statewide concern because it promises to miseducate an entire generation of children by lowering academic standards, condemning students to underperform.

To prevent that loss, last week I introduced a bill in the
State Legislature, S.B. 205, to strip Ebonics education of state
funding.  S.B. 205 prohibits state-derived funds or resources from
being used in California to teach Ebonics as either a foreign
language or as part of a bilingual program.  It also provides a
financial reward to those school districts in low-income areas that
improve the linguistic skills of their students--in English.

 According to the California State Department of Education,
over 300 schools statewide already participate in a little-known
government program established by the State Board of Education in 1981--the "Standard English Program for Speakers of Black Language."  That program is apparently a failure.  Now, other school districts throughout the state are poised to follow Oakland's disastrous lead in retraining its teachers to accommodate Ebonics in the classroom.

 Twenty-six years ago, Brooklyn College offered a course which
taught "Black English" as the alleged native language of African-
Americans.  The outraged response of the NAACP to "Black English" in 1971 is instructive to those who would defend Ebonics instruction today:

 "This language is merely the English of the under-educated
with provincial variances in accent and structure from locale to
locale throughout the English-speaking world," declared the NAACP.  "What our children need, and other disadvantaged American children as well -- Indian, Spanish-speaking, Asian, Appalachian and immigrant Caucasian -- is training in basic English which today is nearly an international language as any in the world... Let our children have the opportunity, and be encouraged to learn the language which will best enable them to comprehend modern science and technology, equip them to communicate intelligently with other English-speaking people of all races, and to share in the exercise of national power."

 Society has a clear vested interested in educating its youth.
In his most famous decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in Brown vs. Board of Education  that "Education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments...  In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education."  Warren's words are no less true today.

 At the heart of the American dream is the principle that
every child, in every neighborhood, should have a chance to succeed in life.  The primary responsibility of the educational system is to educate students and prepare them for career success and equal participation in California's communities... to give them a chance to succeed.  Ebonics is counter this educational goal;  it embraces academic underperformance and creates inequality in standards.

 Providing universal, high-quality education in California is
central to providing an opportunity for success in society.  From
pre-school to college, California must be committed to improving the entire spectrum of its educational system.  Never have Californians and their children more desperately needed quality education.  And never have fads such as Ebonics had the potential to do more harm to students desperately needing the skills with which to compete in a modern, global economy.

 Ebonics is a symptom of an educational system in California
that has a lack of accountability as its most horrible and pervasive
feature. California's children are passed from one grade level to the next without having acquired standard English skills.  Only 32
percent of white California fourth-graders score as proficient
readers, along with just 8 percent of blacks, and 4 percent of
Hispanics.  Those students who wish to learn are prevented from doing so by a lack of discipline and order in the classroom.   After twelve years, students receive high school diplomas without having attained basic competence in reading, writing, or speaking proper English.

 It should be unthinkable to incorporate slang into any
standard core curriculum for English.  As Bill Cosby has said:
"Legitimizing the street in the classroom is backwards.  We should be working hard to legitimize the classroom--and English--in the
street."  Society must demand greater personal discipline from
students and greater involvement and supervision from parents.  These are hard fixes.  Instead, school boards throughout California are dangerously close to institutionalizing street slang in our
educational system.

In 1971, the NAACP suggested in response to "Black English"
that "Black parents throughout the nation should rise up in unanimous condemnation of this insidious conspiracy to cripple our children permanently."  Today, I merely ask taxpayers of all backgrounds to contact their state legislators in Sacramento.

The educational challenges confronting California are
immense.  The gimmick of Ebonics is not the answer.