Whether bilingual-bicultural education will become a change agent and secure equal status with other programs as a desirable and essential aspect of the American educational process is still a question. Like all socio-political issues, its future depends upon the attitudes and beliefs of the populace. One of the current stumbling blocks for the acceptance and implementation of bilingual education is the question of ethnic group status. To provide a compromise between the nativists and the immigrants, current bilingual education is being developed and funded on the basis of the transitional model. Bilingual schooling is not a new phenomena in the United States; since the 1700's, various ethnic groups have established their own schools teaching English as a subject. However, during and after World War I, restrictive legislation and nationalistic and isolationist foreign policies led to the "English only" policy in schools. But by 1975, 383 classroom demonstration projects in 42 languages (23 in American Indian and Eskimo languages) existed and $68,000,000 in Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title VII funds were expended for bilingual education. Significant legislation and court decisions that provided a foundation for bilingual education were Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), Farrington v. Tokusnige (1927), ESEA Title VII, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Bilingual Education Act (1968), Lau v. Nichols (1974), and Serna v. Portales (1964). (NEC)