Before having children in the DISD, I thought the bilingual program also taught Spanish to English only speakers.

Now I understand that this is another approach - "Dual language program" - which is not practiced by most of the schools.

Elementary students are not offered the opportunity to learn another language unless they are Spanish speakers and enrolled in the bilingual program.

If my English speaking sons had received instruction in another language during elementary grades, perhaps they would not struggle with the 2 years of required foreign language in high school.

Why can non-English speaking students be grouped in one classroom and special education students are "mainstreamed" with the general population?

Wouldn't the "bilingual" students benefit from the interaction with English speaking peers?

[Ed Note: Yes, I would love to have my kids in a dual-language program. Unfortunately, DISD's program is primarily designed for Spanish-speaking kids. What would be interesting is if some non-Spanish-speaking group decided to take the District to court.]