In spite of strong political and pedagogical reasons for the study of parental attitudes towards language and bilingual education, recent empirical studies have not adequately been examined by policymakers. Yet today, new theories on second language learning have provided a further impetus for attention to parental attitudes. In 1974, Rhodes articulated the popular beliefs (1) that many Mexican Americans are not in favor of bilingual education, and (2) that parents strongly believe that English should be taught as quickly as possible. However, the empirical findings of nine separate research projects (1969 through 1981) show favorable parent/community attitudes toward the inclusion of Spanish in school bilingual education programs. Rhodes's second comment is challenged by six separate research projects (1973 through 1979) which were based on Lambert's and Gardner's 1972 work; this attitude study identified two types of second language motivation--integrative reasoning and instrumental reasoning. Torres, in 1982, compared the attitudes of parents who were members of the bilingual school advisory committee (BSAC) with the attitudes of parents who had children in a bilingual program but were not actively involved in the BSAC. Findings suggest that bilingualism had a different economic weight for the middle class than it did for the lower class Chicano, and that an unintended consequence of the BSAC may be that it plays a strong role in contributing to effective schooling for the limited English proficient population. (KH)