“This bill doesn’t have enough parental choice,” Wolf said. “We don’t want baby Unz legislation even before we get to the ballot.”
Rep. Marie P. St. Fleur (D-Boston), who immigrated from Haiti and is herself trilingual, said that the final decision relating to bilingual education should be left to professional educators—though parental involvement is still needed in the development of the program.
“No other type of curriculum choice is made by parents, and neither should bilingual education,” she said.
Lavers expressed similar sentiments.
“If we want sound educational decisions, ultimately we want this made by school districts, not by parents,” he said.
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—Staff writer Katherine M. Dimengo can be reached at dimengo@fas.harvard.edu.