A discussion of bilingual education in the Basque Country of Spain presents and compares three language education program/policy models: (1) the traditional approach to language instruction as a subject area, found to be minimally effective in developing second language skills; (2) partial immersion, originally with instruction almost exclusively in the second language from ages 3-6, then in both languages, a model later involving more extensive exposure in the native language; and (3) instruction entirely in Basque, used in both predominantly Basque-speaking and Spanish-speaking communities, with varying results depending on the native-language composition of the classes and the treatment of native-speaking students as a resource. The last model is gaining in popularity in the Basque Country. Research on the effectiveness of the three models in developing students' language proficiency is examined briefly. Contains 4 references. (MSE)