Proposition 227 Aftermath #11/Pt 3- ThinkTank, PBS Network, April 13, 2000

[benikomason2386]

Libraries offer keys to success (part 3)

For many children of poverty, libraries are the only source of reading material. California's school and public libraries consistently rank at or near the bottom of the country. Investing in libraries will give language minority and other low-income children a chance to develop a reading habit, a necessity for attaining high levels of English language competence.

— Stephen Krashen, Malibu

Professor emeritus at the USC Rossier School of Education

[benikomason2386]

Libraries offer keys to success (part 2)

...

Bilingual education is not enough, however. As noted, language minority children are very often children of poverty. Children from high-poverty areas have little access to books at home, at schools and in the community. This means less reading, and less reading means less literacy development.

[benikomason2386]

This letter was published in the Daily Breeze, Torrance, CA Dec 28, 2011

Libraries offer keys to success

Bilingual education works. Children in bilingual programs consistently do better than children in English-only programs on tests of English reading. Also, studies have shown that the dismantling of bilingual programs in California after Proposition 227 did not lead to better English language development....

Krashen writes more about the importance of access to books in this letter.