From Segregation to School Finance

Abstract

I this chapter, I review the legal trajectory of language rights in public schooling in the United States and how language has been intertwined with other policy issues in court cases aimed at expanding access and equity for minority students: desegregation and school finance. Most of these cases originated in the Southwestern United States where there were and continue to be critical masses of Latino students— largely Spanish speakers of Mexican descent—attending public schools. As an organizing frame for the chapter, I expand Ruiz’s (1984) framework for analyzing orientations1 in language policy. My goal is to document and analyze the assumptions in legal arguments marshaled in these cases about how English language learners (ELLs) attending public schools should learn and be taught English and how students’ home languages fit into those processes.2 I focus on the legal opinions issued by federal and state courts because although courts do not create policy, they play an important role in the policymaking process (Bosworth, 2001; Horowitz, 1977). Courts can reject a policy by declaring it unconstitutional and set the parameters for policymaking by legislatures. Likewise, when courts rebuff plaintiffs’ claims, they uphold and often reinforce the status quo. Moreover, as critical race theorists have observed, legal decisions play an important cultural role in legitimizing and institutionalizing racial inequality. Language, like race, has been an important marker of social status and is a significant aspect of individuals’ social identities (Lippi-Green, 2011; Perea, 1992). Language is also a key medium for participation in social settings (Rodriguez, 2006). Language and race are not interchangeable, but the legal framework for language rights in the United States was an extension of civil rights era policies aimed at addressing racial discrimination