The 8-year-old girl from Barcelona, Spain, with dark blond hair was placed in the Coral Way Bilingual K-8 Center, the nation's oldest bilingual school.

NPR: Instruction Of Students Learning English Bleak

Just as the bilingual school-teaching which California did away with in 1997 obscured more fundamental problems over achieving literacy in any language, affirmative action channelled good motives down a false path.

ECONOMIST: Affirmative action in California

For example, ATEK literacy programme graduates, Wilfredo Apaza and Marisol Martinez, completed formal secondary education and teacher training courses and have now been recruited by a local bilingual school to teach religion and literacy in Quechua.

UNESCO: ATEK Reading Comprehension

Many of California's Latino students, who make up by far the biggest share of children in bilingual classes, leave school unable to read or write English.

ECONOMIST: Ron Unz, swimming instructor

They studied bilingual programs in the Houston Independent School District and found that native-Spanish speakers were at or above grade level in English and Spanish in first grade through fifth grade.

NPR: Instruction Of Students Learning English Bleak

Mr Unz had the idea for his campaign in 1996, when immigrant garment-workers in Los Angeles organised a school boycott to protest against bilingual education.

ECONOMIST: Ron Unz, swimming instructor

Christine Jenkins is an ex-patriot American who believes being bilingual is essential for living in Europe, and that pre-school is the crucial age to start.

BBC: Curb on schools' languages innovation

Mr Tancredo has been furious about immigration since 1975, when he was a high-school social-studies teacher and the Colorado legislature passed the country's first bilingual education law.

ECONOMIST: Dispiriting news on immigration

Gareth Jones AM, chair of the committee, discussed the importance of continued learning from school through to employment, and how this can make a difference to confidence when using bilingual services.

BBC: Debate on bilingual training in the workplace