Bilingual PR - Si?

From Yahoo:
"Puerto Rico aims to become fully bilingual by 2022"

The governor of Puerto Rico is trying to do what more than a century of American citizenship has failed to accomplish: make Puerto Ricans fluent in English. Gov. Luis Fortuno, who has been mentioned as a possible Republican vice-presidential candidate, has proposed an ambitious, and what critics call far-fetched, plan to require all public schools to teach all courses in English instead of Spanish. The U.S. territory has had a long and contentious relationship with the English language, and many Puerto Ricans are skeptical about embracing it, fearing they will lose a key part of their identity and find themselves a step closer to statehood, a status that only about half of islanders have backed in recent polls. "Bilingualism opens doors and provides opportunity to our children so they can shine and become successful in a labor market that is increasingly competitive and globalized," he said. Only 12 of the island's 1,472 schools offer an all-English curriculum of the sort envisioned by Fortuno, while 35 other schools offer some courses in English, such as math and physical education, said Education Secretary Edwin Moreno. "The main idea is to have a Puerto Rican who can communicate in Spanish as well as English," said Moreno, who acknowledged that he himself has an imperfect command of English. Moreno is overseeing an initial $15 million project to install a bilingual curriculum in 31 schools starting in August and to reinforce the English-Spanish curriculum already in place in the 35 other schools. Plans for adding the rest are still hazy, but the governor says he wants all public school students to be bilingual within 10 years. Under the governor's plan, schools would continue to offer Spanish grammar and literature classes. All public schools are currently required to teach English from kindergarten through high school, and 9,000 teachers are devoted to that. But about 96 percent of the island's 3.9 million people speak Spanish at home, and some 2.8 million Puerto Ricans do not consider themselves fluent in English, according to the U.S. Census.  From 1900 to 1948, all high school subjects were taught in English, until the island's first democratically elected governor, Luis Munoz Marin, ended the practice. In 1991, Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon went further by declaring Spanish the island's sole official language. The law was repealed a couple of years later by Gov. Pedro Rosello, whose first official act was to make both English and Spanish the official languages, a law that stands to this day, even if only a few places have street signs in English.

^ Puerto Rico should keep English and Spanish as the two official languages and encourage they study and use of English. English is the sole international language and anyone who wants to make something of themselves - even in PuertoPuerto Ricans want they could always vote for independence and loose all the Federal money they currently get  - which makes the island one of the richest in the Caribbean  but I don't see that happening anytime soon. It seems they just want to constantly complain and at the same time take our money. While I don't see Puerto Ricans becoming fluent in English by 2020 I do hope the islanders will wake up and see its practical useage. ^

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/puerto-rico-aims-become-fully-bilingual-2022-