Bilingual Education and the Laws and Conflicts that Affect It

Bilingual education is a matter of controversy, but there are still students that need assistance in language development in order to successfully learn. It is hard to teach children with language development issues, but schools and the government have to figure out ways to meet these needs. One conflict confronting English Language Learners is funding of bilingual education; this conflict is contradicted by the lack of funding for English immersion programs. It appears that many people feel that English immersion is a more effective way of teaching English Language Learners than bilingual education. These people believe that bilingual education has a detrimental effect on English Language Learners, and "students in bilingual education programs consistently score lower on standard achievement tests" (Sorenson, 2007). These people believe that teaching ELL students English should be the first priority, but many schools still use bilingual education. It appears that although English immersion may be a better program many schools continue to use bilingual education because it guarantees that they will receive higher funding. Federal funding is mainly aimed at bilingual education programs, and schools fear that they will lose funding. (Sorenson) It is hard to teach students effectively if there are not enough resources.