How do you say ‘expensive’ in six different languages?
By Crystal Hubbard | Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
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Answer: By requiring the state to follow the letter of the law. According to the Texas Politics Blog, AG Greg Abbott must decide whether or not to force the state legislature to vote on multiple secondary education bilingual programs, or none at all.
Currently, Texas public schools promote only Spanish as an alternative for students who struggle with English, but the English as a Second Language program could expand exponentially if lawmakers choose to enforce, um, the law. Under the Texas Education Code,
Each district with an enrollment of 20 or more students with limited English proficiency in any language classification in the same grade level shall offer a bilingual education or special language program.
In July, Senior U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice ruled that Texas educators and administrators had failed to successfully execute English as a Second Language. Justice wrote:
“After a quarter-century of sputtering implementation, (the state has) failed to achieve results. Failed implementation cannot prolong the existence of a failed program in perpetuity.”
His ruling went on to require the Texas Education Agency to “establish a language program and monitoring program that complies with the law by January 31, 2009.”
Well, OK, sure. If you’ve got a law, it’s usually a good idea to be in compliance with it. But in this case, lawmakers may have to pick a poison: upset minority parents or furious frugal-ees. Not only is the the Dallas Indepdendent School District laying off staffers and cutting back on positions, but the state faces budget woes from a myriad of departments — you’d have your hands full Googling “TxDOT budget” and “Hurricane Ike relief funding.” Throw METRO in there, and the Houston Police Department, and you might as well whip up an “Out of Office” e-mail reply right now.
Complying with the law would require the state (hey, taxpayers, that’s you!) to shell out millions for Urdu, Arabic, Korean, Mandarin and Vietnamese “textbooks, assessments and teacher certification programs to provide equal opportunity for all languages that meet the requirements of the state education code,” according to the blog.
David Bradley, R-Beaumont, puts the matter in perspective:
“The Legislature will have to decide - do we want to do bilingual education in Texas - because it’s all or none. Do we need to develop these massive curriculums and textbooks and assessments for all foreign languages and not be discriminating for doing it in Spanish? At the end of the day, I think we offer no bilingual education … Do you want to use bilingual education, or do you want to use immersion? The Legislature has to make a decision.”
Yes, they do.
(Photo: Textbooks. Photo by flickr user rob.wall, used via the Creative Commons license.)
