ABSTRACT
Beginning with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the introduction of the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, the education of racial, ethnic, and language minorities has been a centerpiece of political conversations in the United States (Keller and Van Hooft, 1982; Lyons, 1990). During the 2000 presidential campaign, the issues surrounding the educational system in the United States came to the foreground as one of the most important banners for the candidates and voters. Consequently, the media repeatedly brought the issue of education, including multicultural and multilingual education, to the forefront of campaign coverage.1
