No Translation Necessary
Local school districts in California are trying to defy Proposition 227, the ballot initiative passed by voters in June to abolish bilingual education. The cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose are challenging the measure in court. The Los Angeles Unified School District, however, is taking a different approach. It's simply giving a new name to the old program, calling it "English immersion" even though it explicitly permits 30 percent of instruction to occur in Spanish. Educrats are also driving a school bus through a loophole in 227--one that had worried conservatives from the start--which permits parents to request native-language instruction for children who have special "emotional, educational, and psychological" needs. L.A. schools have promised to grant a waiver to any parent requesting one, and you can bet what the local teachers union is encouraging Hispanic moms and dads to do. "Bilingual teachers, union and district officials are attempting to keep Spanish instruction in the classroom with its attendant flow of money and perks," writes 5th-grade teacher Douglas Lasken in Wednesday's San Jose Mercury News. "Meanwhile, thousands of children are wondering if they are finally going to be taught in the language of this country."

Rating the Governors
The Cato Institute has released its biennial fiscal report card on America's governors. This year, only two chief executives earned A's: William Janklow of South Dakota and John Rowland of Connecticut, both Republicans. Among governors with a national profile, George W. Bush (R., Texas), George Pataki (R., N.Y.), and Christine Whitman (R., N.J.) received B's, Pete Wilson (R., Calif.) got a C, and Frank Keating (R., Okla.) rang up a D. Cato awarded only three F's--all to Democrats. "Party affiliation did seem to make a major difference in the governor's records of fiscal restraint," write authors Stephen Moore and Dean Stansel. "Republicans significantly outperformed Democrats." That wasn't true for earlier report cards.

Choosing the Right Book
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has released a sensible new guidebook, Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth about America's 100 Top Schools. Each entry provides basic information, supplemented by an opinionated text describing graduation requirements and campus politics. The public and private ivies are well represented on its list, as are a few unexpected institutions, such as the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Certain readers, who shall remain nameless, are bound to gripe about the patently false claim that the University of Tennessee's football stadium seats more people than the University of Michigan's, but on the whole this is an excellent resource for high school students thinking about their future. Buy it for someone you know right now.