Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences Houvouras/Opposition to Bilingual Education The Effects of Demographic Variables, Ethnic Prejudice, and Attitudes Toward Immigration on Opposition to Bilingual Education

The majority of quantitative research on race relations focuses on Whites ’ opposition to policies that are designed to help Blacks. The current study looks beyond this White/ Black model of racism and focuses on opposition to bilingual education. It is hypothe-sized that demographic variables, prejudice against Latinos, and attitudes toward immi-gration increase opposition to bilingual education. The results support these hypotheses. It is also found that education has a significant positive relationship with opposition to bilingual education. This result was unexpected and needs to be explored in the future. The positive relationship between prejudice against Latinos and opposition to bilingual education suggests that this is a race issue. However, the significance of attitudes toward immigration suggests that anti-Latino prejudice works differently than prejudice against Blacks. Therefore, future research on race relations should focus on all minority groups to gain an inclusive understanding of racial/ethnic inequality. Latinos are currently the fastest growing minority group in the United States. According to demographic projections, Latinos will constitute the largest minority group within the next 10 years, with two thirds having Mexi-can origins. By the year 2050, demographers predict they will constitute 25% of the U.S. population. If current trends continue, Latinos will eventually be the majority group in America (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1999). This growth among the Latino population has been met with great opposi-tion by voters and policy makers. Both the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 attempted to eliminate illegal immigration from Mexico. Other laws have been passed recently that restrict legal immigrants ’ access to welfare benefits and deny benefits to illegal immigrants altogether. Additionally