Impetus behind Question 2

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andrewgessman
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:31 pm

Impetus behind Question 2

Post by andrewgessman » Fri Dec 23, 2011 2:18 am

I lived in MA for roughly five years (from 2003-2008), beginning college up there just a couple years after Question 2 was implemented. During college, I earned credits through a TESOL program and a teacher certification program at Mt. Holyoke College, through which I completed field-studies in local public and charter schools, served as a tutor, and later student-taught Social Studies in a secondary school. In almost all the schools I visited/worked, I saw and participated in ESL programs with Bilingual Ed components - to one degree or another. It is interesting to see how, and why, MA implemented Question 2 (keeping it vague, allowing for loopholes, etc.) compared to California’s Prop 227 and especially Arizona’s Prop 203, which was far stricter. Does implentation of referenda such as these correlate to the initial impetus for passing them? I think so, considering Arizona especially, where much of the strictness there reflected the state’s antipathy toward undocumented ELLs. The vote in MA was less political, not tied to immigration politics, I believe. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

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