PORTLAND -- What is the best method to teach English to non-native speakers?

That question is at the heart of growing debate over Ballot Measure 58, the so-called bilingual education ban, which appears on Oregon’s November ballot.

The measure, according to the Division of Elections, would officially prohibit teaching public school students languages other than English for more than two years. It is aimed at non-native English speakers -- not those students seeking to pick up a secondary language in high school.

Bill Sizemore, a Ballot Measure 58 sponsor, believes it ultimately will help immigrants and other non-native speakers get a “leg up” on national language and culture.

Sizemore says he got interested in the English as a Second Language teaching model after speaking with a few friends who happen to teach it in public schools.

“They told me they were intentionally keeping immigrant students in ESL classes longer than they needed to,” he says, because schools received up to $2,700 in extra funding for each ESL enrollee.

Sizemore contends that many of the students did not need to be in the classes; rather, school districts were using them as “pawns -- just so the schools can get more money.”

Immigration, of course, is a hot-button issue, here in Oregon and around the nation. But Sizemore says his initiative is not an attempt to tap anti-immigration sentiment here.

State ballot language claims that about 13 percent of all public school students -- about 74,000 kids between kindergarten and 12th grade -- do not speak English as their primary language.

 Opposition: Some question Sizemore's expertise

 What it means: How ESL works in Portland schools