While the Bilingual Education Act was probably the most important legislative action for the cause of bilingual education, Lau v. Nichols was arguably the most influential judicial decision for language education in America.
Following the integration of the San Francisco school system in 1971, the district absorbed over 2,856 Chinese students who were not proficient in English. However, less than half of these students were provided with supplemental English courses, and even those lucky students who did get supplemental English had it taught exclusively in English (no native language component). In response to this inadequate English education, Kinney Kinmon Lau, one of these Chinese students without a supplemental English class, sued the San Francisco Unified School District. Lau and her fellow students claimed that the district’s failure to provide supplemental English classes violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment because it made for unequal educational opportunities among students.
Both the district court and the appeals court denied relief for Lau, ruling that the district’s educational policies did not violate the 14th Amendment. Lau then successfully appealed the appeals court’s decision in the Supreme Court--in fact, the decision was unanimous.
Justice Douglas delivered the Court’s majority opinion, contending that the district’s failure to provide supplemental English curricula to non-English-speaking students constituted a violation of both the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Section 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it deprived non-English-speaking students of an equal opportunity to participate in the public education system. While all the justices concurred with the opinion, Justice Blackmon did add a small limitation--if only a few students did not speak English, districts would not be required to provide supplemental English.
Among the many impacts this landmark decision had, one of the most immediate effects was the passage of the 1974 amendment to the Bilingual Education Act, which moved from encouraging bilingual education through competitive federal grants to requiring the implementation of such systems. Another big outcome was the Lau Remedies published in 1975 by the HEW Office for Civil Rights, which were set to accomplish the twofold goal of ensuring districts’ compliance with the law and providing guidance on implementations of supplemental programs.
Food for thought and further research: what would our limited English proficiency student education system look like today if it were not for Lau v. Nichols? Do you think Lau v. Nichols went too far or perhaps not far enough in terms of enforcing supplemental English education?
Sources:
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1973/72-6520
https://www-tc.pbs.org/beyondbrown/brownpdfs/launichols.pdf
Great post! I really like how you provided additional questions at the end; it makes me think about how Lau v. Nichols relates to us today. I find it really strange how many Americans demand that immigrants learn to speak English, yet many people deny them the opportunity to learn English. At lahs we are lucky to have the chance to learn many foreign languages, yet some students are deprived the privilege of learning English.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting post that truly shows how far our nation has gone to ensure for equal opportunities to all its students. As I looked deeper into the topic, it was shocking to find that the justification of the district court and appeals court vote in favor of Nichols was in fact the Brown v Board of Education case. The courts stated that as shown in Brown v Board of Education, equal access is about providing the same opportunities. The students in the school system had access to the same type of education as the other students and in such, their 14th Amendment rights were not violated. It's very surprising to see that the case that broke down the barrier of race in education was further used to restrict others because of their race. Lau V. Nichols goes to show the importance of education regardless of where we start.
ReplyDeleteSOURCE : https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lau-v-Nichols