Refuse? Really.... I don't imagine that the "refusal" of students to learn English is a primary contributor to the current educational crisis in the US. If you can point me to a source that supports your theory, be my guest...
I think I should point out that David Dow (Shinbushi) is from the LA area. I think he was talking about his state's educational system rather than the nation's.
You might remember a thread I started a long time ago about how I was making plans for moving back to the states and asking for help. You might also remember that I took California off the list right from the start. Part of that was due to stories I have heard from a couple of people that had kids while in Japan and moved back to California. The troubles they had with trying to get thier kids to be taught in a way they thought best convinced me to try some place with less non native speakers of English.
There are a few theories as to how children should be taught in schools if their first language is not English. Most of us here know them, but I will explain for the few that don't.
One idea is to immerse the kids in the language right from the start. Send them to regular classes for subjects like Math as well as special classes on the language.
The other is to teach the kids in their native language such skills as math while at the same time teach them the new language in special classes.
In the first case, many kids just can't learn much math and such until they get good at the language. So you have to sacrifice other skills to the new language.
But the problem with the second method is that you have entire communities where English is not spoken. The kids go to school and learn math in Spainish, go home and speak Spainish with their parents, watch TV in Spainish, go to the mall and shop in Spainish.... You get the picture.
And before I give the impression I am down on just one group- I have seen people who have lived in Japan for years and just
refuse to learn the language. And there is a lot less safety net to help people that don't speak anything other than English in Japan than there is for people who only speak Spainish in California.
And I often rant about the idiots living in Japan that can't bother to even learn how to order a cup of coffee in Japanese. It gives me a sense of shame that people would come to live here and not make even a small effort to learn the language of the country they are living in.
But of course, there are sections of some major cities in America where as far as a lot of the people are concerned,
they are not in America.
And as a teacher I can tell you that there is a huge percentage of students that unless they are convinced that either the teachers or their parents are going to beat them if they don't learn something, or if you can't convince them that learning the subject will someone help them with their social life in the next 15 minutes, that they will refuse to do anything more than go through the motions- if even that.
So you see how there are entire generations in some parts of the US that are not learning the language and tend to think of themselves as being citizens of a country that speaks their language rather than America. They are not being forced to assimilate into the mainstream culture and like most teenagers and kids they take the easy route every time.
Oh, and as an aside, if I can I will be moving back to a place where my kids will be treated as if knowing English is a given fact. If they have toruble with things like math I and my wife will tutor them at night as well as contiue to teach them English if they don't get lessons in school. Based on my experiences with teaching a language and learning another, I think that expecting them to learn in English if far better (with a lot of parential help) than actual language lessons in schools.
(No, Law was not my major, just an interest) 
