Bi-lingual Education Advocacy

Usually, I discuss things vaguely having to do with women and history.  But in actuality, I simply write what I am passionate about.  Truly, I will not digress from my main topic of writing on this blog very much, but I have a lot to say about the following subject

I would love for you to post your opinion on this issue.  I have always thought it was sad that several of my students are fluent in both Spanish and English, but since they have been in an American school since kindergarten, have only learned to read and write in English.  Many of my fluent Spanish speakers that speak Spanish in the home cannot read or write in Spanish at all.  The phonics are different, and the alphabet is different.  Recently, several parents have expressed this as a lament, that their children cannot read and write in their native language. 

Let me just say that I realize the parents came to America voluntarily and are in our school systems.  But since coming to America, they have to work hard to make living and may not have the education or resources to teach their children Spanish at home.  Their children are not the ones that made the choice to come here, but they are, and because of a language barrier are falling behind.
If you were a parent with your children in another country, would you not want them to learn your own native language? 

There is an elementary school in Lexington, KY that has bilingual education for American children.  Half of their day is taught in English and half in Spanish.    This is Maxwell Elementary, close to UK's campus in Lexington.  This seems like a great idea to me.  I know it will never happen anywhere in my school system, but something that may be more realistic that might help these students are perhaps tutoring sessions to learn to read and write in Spanish after school.  Or perhaps Spanish could be one of the "Specials" schools offer, similar to Music and Art. 

I've been considering starting a Spanish Club to help the children learn Spanish.  But the unfortunate thing is that I can only influence my own school system.  I wish other school systems would acknowledge this issue better. I would also highly recommend Rosetta Stone.  I use it in the classroom for kids trying to learn English, but it also helps when you're learning any language.

This is just something I'm wondering about and was thinking maybe I could get your opinion on the issue.  Being a bilingual person can yield many opportunities later on, especially with jobs, but if a student can't read or write in their native language, what good does it do them?
I haven't posted in about a week, because I have been working on putting together my webpage for the schools system in which I work.  So today, I do not have a project of the day, because my this week's project has been this:

Here is My Professional Webpage

Just scroll down to view what I have put on the school website.  It is not much, just basically an overview for parents to see exactly how I'm helping their children in the public schools. 

If you have further interest in what I do in public schools, here is my school profile.