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This paper traces the United States Bilingual Education Act (BEA) from its inception in 1968 through its most recent reauthorisation in 1994 as the primary federal legislative effort to provide equal educational opportunity to language minority students in the United States. The first section introduces the polemic between two ideological positions, assimilation and multiculturalism, which have had a determinant effect on reauthorisations of the BEA. The second section introduces federal legislation and litigation which introduced the framework of equal educational opportunity during the 1960s and 1970s. The third section follows the evolution of the BEA from its inception in 1968 through its reauthorisation in 1994 and includes a description of key litigation that has served to articulate the specific rights of language minority students. The fourth section presents the current scene, both the reauthorisation of the BEA and significant state initiatives. In the conclusion the authors acknowledge that federal educational policy related to language minority students should be viewed within the broader international context.
