[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 47 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3242-H3243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THOMAS DOLUISIO AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Roth] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROTH. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being allowed to take this 5-
minute opportunity that we have at this time during the day.
  I want to tell you about a brave and dedicated school administrator, 
Thomas Doluisio, who is a State school superintendent in Bethlehem, PA. 
In his district, he has shown some real leadership in Bethlehem, and he 
has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in academic success and progress. It 
is very important, I think, that we not only talk about the negative 
things that happen in our country and many times in the school system, 
and also the positive.
  Here is an example of a person who has taken tremendous individual 
initiative and brought up the test scores. What did Doluisio do? He led 
the fight against the bilingual education bureaucracy and made it 
possible for his district's Spanish-speaking students to be immersed in 
English speaking classrooms. Here is what happened. He noticed that the 
typical student in his district spent 7 years in bilingual education 
classes before being moved or the student was moved to a regular class 
being taught in English. Children in kindergarten spent entire days 
without hearing a word of English and yet administrators were somehow 
perplexed when these students later scored very poorly in English 
tests.
  Doluisio knew that the system was broken and he knew how to fix it. 
Barely a year after the school district switched to immersion from 
bilingual education, improvements have already started to show. 
Margarita Rivas, a Bethlehem parent, is praising the school 
superintendent because she said, now our children can speak English and 
they are able to compete in America so they too can rise and advance on 
the ladder of opportunity in America.
  Mr. Doluisio did what any good administrator does. He recognized a 
problem and he started to fix it. But he also had the courage to take 
on an entrenched bureaucracy, and he won. For that, he was officially 
condemned in the 1994 convention for the National Association for 
Bilingual Education. He did, however, win the respect and admiration of 
Bethlehem parents, whose children are now better able to be prepared 
and to complete for jobs and pursue their share of the American dream. 
You know, I suspect that Thomas Doluisio will take that approbation and 
that approval and that endorsement over any endorsement from the 
National Association for Bilingual Education any day of the week.

[[Page H3243]]

  The families of Bethlehem, PA, throughout the area are lucky to have 
a school superintendent that will fight the system in order to ensure 
that their children can learn the language of opportunity in America. 
It is time Congress takes up this fight by ending almost three decades 
of failed bilingual education programs and bring our educational focus 
back on teaching English again.
  Whether it is Newsweek, whether it is a daily paper, no matter who 
has investigated this issue over the last 30 years, has said that 
changes have to be made. I am delighted now that we have a commitment 
that we are going to be addressing this issue in the near future here 
in Congress.
  Let us help the brave men and dedicated men and women, like Thomas 
Doluisio, by passing H.R. 739, the Declaration of Official Language 
Act.
  I thank the Speaker and the Members for yielding me this time.

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