USA Today story the other day reported on how early foreign language instruction is soaring in popularity and focused on private language academies. Story in the San Jose Mercury News reports on the organized opposition to starting an immersion program for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten kids in a couple public schools in Palo Alto. Opponents won by saying such programs served an affluent, elite minority and that Chinese shouldn't be given higher status than other languages. I thought all residents of P.A. were affluent, given the million-dollar pricetags for 900 sq. ft. fixer-uppers.