Colorado's bilingual program, which allows Anglo children to participate on a voluntary basis, has been successful in increasing skills in English and in achievement areas measured by English standardized achievement tests, and in improving self concept, attendance, and parent participation. Opponents of bilingual education have claimed that it endangers the melting pot principle, that earlier immigrants pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and that bilingual education enhances separatism, preserves ghettos and barrios, and delays the integration of non-English speaking children into the mainstream of American society. These myths "seem to be a 'rational' attempt to justify our ethnocentrism and latent racism." A creative bilingual program freed of various restrictions imposed by federal and state funding requirements could: (1) encourage majority group participation; (2) allow children to learn in two languages so that they are bilingual; (3) offer equal educational opportunity for all and provide a pool of capable bilingual citizens for diplomacy, commerce, and other fields of endeavor; (4) foster integration and cultural understanding; and (5) create a learning environment in which the languages and cultures of all the students are treated with equal respect. (CM)