On the recordMarch 21, 1994
Bilingual education was not invented by or created by the Congress or by any State legislature. The requirement placed upon the States to provide bilingual education resulted from a Supreme Court decision, Lau versus Nichols, and the remedies developed by U.S. Commissioner of Education Jewell Bell to assist States in meeting the spirit of that decision. The Lau decision involved Chinese children from San Francisco who were dispersed into schools where there were no Chinese speaking teachers. There was a lawsuit brought on behalf of some of those students. The Supreme Court held that if the children could not be communicated with by the teacher, they could not get a free public education. If we adopt the gentleman's amendment, we abolish the help that the Federal Government gives to States and localities to provide the remedies developed to meet this Supreme Court decision.
Source
govinfo.gov
