Editor's Note

This issue of the journal takes a comparative look at the intersection of schooling, language, identity, and public policy as they impact ethnic minority population groups both domestically and internationally. In the first article Amara Holstein examines the social and political fallout of the recent anti-bilingual education initiative in California. Claimed by many as being anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic, Holstein contends that this initiative falls within a broad, historical lexicon of nativist sentiment and backlash intended to disempower Hispanics and other linguistic minorities in the United States. Her analysis also focuses on the personal voices of California Hispanics and their ambivalency towards this particular initiative.