Emotion aside the California expirement proves that this ballot initiative will work.

The California law allowed for school districts to opt out. Once it passed many did. The best example comes from the San Diego area, which included the opposition leader to the English emmersion program. About 18 months after the law passed he admitted he had been wrong and English emmersion works.

When you teach any child in their native language, then teach them English in classes they are very slow to learn. On average it takes many years of classes in English to be able to communicate in English. Think back, how many of us took a year or two of Spanish and how much Spanish do we really know?

When they take those kids and throw them into regular classes where only English is spoken the kids are able to communicate in English after the first year. It is much quicker.

This is not about being mean to foreign kids. This is about being smart about how kids learn. It works. Enough so that its not a controversy in California.

I say, vote yes on the Ballot Initiative.

I still say DEPORT the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, they broke our law's.

Cummins said non-English speakers are trying to catch up to a moving target as their English-speaking classmates also improve. And complex academic language isn't something students can pick up on the streets, he said, because it's generally used only in classrooms or textbooks.

Ok, so to make learning easier for non-english speaking students, we need to hold the "Target" in place & have all students not progress until all have caught-up or we can just "Dumb-Down" our textbooks (even more!)

This is proof-positive that some really want to stop others from "Gaining An Advantage" through advancing their own education. ... look at the two examples of:
Carlos Perez, 17 - sleeps-in & no initiative
Beatriz Munoz, 16 - transfering to a "private Catholic school ... with a strong academic reputation." ... (how come you don't hear of somebody transfering to a "Government funded school with a strong academic reputation.")??????

There is no such thing as an "Illegal Immigrant", there is "Illegal Alien".

Anonymous | 6:28 a.m. ---

"I still say DEPORT the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, they broke our law's.

Take their jobs away (i.e., enforce US illegal immigration labor laws) and most will deport themselves. Kudos to ICE for their raids on businesses hiring illegals. Keep it up.

Unfortunately, if B. Hussein Osama is elected president that will be the end of the ICE enforcement.

The illegal alien problem has not died down, but has been taken out of the media by presidential politics. Both McCain and Obama are amnesty supporters, and with the candidates that opposed amnesty carefully taken out of the picture by party politics, we will see the issue back in full fury. It will become a factor in congressional elections. It already has in the Utah 3rd Congressional District. By 2010 it will be at the top of the list.

Is this Utah's true family values?. If the U.S. Department of Justice has said that Mexican mafia-linked marijuana farms are becoming an increasing problem on federal lands in the western United States. Farms have been found in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and in Sevier County, the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force busted up a marijuana farm in the Pickle Keg area of Salina Canyon, and the task force said approximately 18,000 plants, growing equipment, water lines and camping gear were removed from the site, and the Iron County Sheriff's deputies are back on the scene of a farm with as many as 5,000 plants in the Little Creek area near Paragonah, and similar pot farms in Iron and Washington counties that netted upward of 80,000 plants, it's time to DEPORT these illegals now and fast.

The reason you don't hear about public schools with strong academic reputations is:

1) Media bias. The news loves to beat on education.

2) Dead horse syndrome. Utahns love to beat the dead horse of education.

3) Private schools, and yes, charter schools, get to pick and choose their students. Public schools have to, by law, take everyone in their boundaries. So, all the "rejects" from private and charter end up at the public school door.

Research indicates that it takes a student about 7 years of learning a language to be able to understand content subject matter. In stead of recruiting teachers from Mexico, why doesn't our government make an agreement with our neighboring country to send English teachers to Mexico starting at the pre-school level to teach English? Then hopefully by the time they come to the US illegally they will already be fluent in the language. Or better yet, why doesn't our gonvernment put pressure on Mexico's government to have them make English their official language?

DEPORT THEM!

They broke our laws and came here illegally... DEPORT THEM, AND DO IT NOW!

I am still intrigued by the ignorance of today�s society. Ignorant and lauraceous comments such as �DEPORT THEM, AND DO IT NOW!� changes the image of the United States. People throughout the world are losing respect for this country due to some of its racist and ignorant residents. Where is the �nation of immigrants� that the United States once was. Before saying some like �deport them� think about family separation, the land of the free, economics, politics, and most of all, the values that the U.S. claims to have (LIFE, LIBERTY, and AND PERSUIT OF HAPPINESS). Don�t you get it? Immigrant families are here to work and that�s it! Yes, they came here illegally, but still, remember that they were driven by hunger and better opportunities. Every day I fear that the good reputation that the U.S. once hold, will eventually collapse. Please�educate yourself about the immigration process (which is extremely expensive, exclusive, and time-consuming) and why immigrants are still here even though they are put in the bottom of the social scale. After that, then you can put another comment.