Douglas County voters overwhelmingly support a proposed Colorado ballot initiative to limit bilingual education to one year. Support was across party lines and ideology. Seventy-two percent of Democrats and 90 percent of Republicans gave it support. Even self described liberals said they supported it (73%).

The initiative proposed by Congressman Tom Tancredo and former Reagan White House official and columnist Linda Chavez, has just begun the formal approval process to gain access to the Colorado November ballot.

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QUESTION: There may be an initiative on the November ballot to require that all students in Colorado bilingual education programs receive one year of intense English language instruction and then be mainstreamed into English-only classes. Would you say you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose the initiative?		Strongly support 59% Somewhat support 25% Somewhat oppose 6% Strongly oppose 6% Don't know/no opinion 4% TOTAL Support 74% Oppose 12% Don't know 4%

In a six county Denver metro survey in 1998 a question asking about limiting bilingual education to "not more than 2 years and require intense instruction in English" received 67 percent support.

Denver Public Schools currently operate the states largest bilingual program and has recently limited it to three years.

Douglas County is one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. It now has more than 160,000 residents. Seventy-two percent of the residents arrived the last decade and 47 percent came from one of the other counties in the metro area. A third of the new arrivals came from another state or country.

SURVEY FACTS

Telephone survey conducted by Ciruli Associates with random sample of 403 Douglas County registered voters. Interviews conducted May 5 to 12, 2000 Statistical range of accuracy plus or minus 5 percentage points. Conducted for publication in www.ciruli.com, the official web site of pollster Floyd Ciruli.

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