Rebranding bilingualism: The shifting discourses of language education policy in California's 2016 election

Using the methods of critical discourse analysis, we examine California Proposition 227, English Language in Public Schools (1998), and its repeal measure, Proposition 58, the California Education for a Global Economy Initiative (2016). Through comparative analyses of framing, keywords, spatial and temporal markers, actors, and legislative titles, we illustrate a discursive shift. While Proposition 227 presented bilingual education as a threat to children's—and, by proxy, the nation's—well-being (a language as problem orientation), Proposition 58 represents multilingual education as key to students’ future economic success and to the state and nation's continued global economic advantage (a language as resource orientation). We argue that Proposition 58's approach to “marketing” multilingual education may have contributed to its passing in November 2016, a result that we celebrate. At the same time, we raise questions about whether policies framed within one discursive regime (e.g., neoliberalism and global human capital) can eventually serve the aims of another (e.g., equity, plurality, and social justice), or whether discourse is destiny in policy making.