This year marks the 30th anniversary of the federal Bilingual Education Act, the original legislation that created special programs for students who are learning to speak English. Yet instead of celebrations, bilingual education is facing attacks and reexamination from all sides.

In California, the state with the largest percentage of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students, voters will decide on June 2 whether bilingual classrooms should be eliminated and replaced with one-year, sheltered English-immersion classes. Officially named Proposition 227, the California ballot question comes in the wake of complaints by immigrant parents and some bilingual educators that students are languishing in bilingual classes without learning enough English.

Throughout the country, the California initiative has sparked a renewed debate about the relative effectiveness of the many different approaches to educating the growing population of LEP students. And it is also provoking some soul-searching among bilingual advocates who are arguing for the reform of bilingual education rather than its elimination.