Hilton outlines English-only California schools plan

Less than half of California schoolkids can read English at grade level. That is the state’s own number, and it is a disgrace. So when Steve Hilton says classrooms should go back to English-only, he is not playing politics. He’s stating the obvious. Kids who can’t speak English are being set up for failure before they get near a job application.

The usual California chorus will call this mean-spirited. They’ll say we should celebrate every language. Fine. Celebrate at home. But in school, the task is to give children the tools to get ahead. Immigrant parents know this. They didn’t come here so their kids could stay stuck in a separate track. The real inequality is a classroom that never asks for English. That is the soft bigotry of low expectations, in a different wrapper.

Hilton is giving the California GOP a platform that speaks to normal families. Not about walls, about kids. Teach English first, then everything else becomes possible. That’s a message that can win in a state where a huge chunk of the education establishment has failed the very students it claims to defend.

Will it be easy? No. The unions and the bureaucracies will fight him. But sometimes the honest position is also the simple one. Say it in English. Teach it in English. Give the next generation a real chance. Hilton might be the first candidate in years to talk about California schools like a parent would.