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U.S. English Chairman Calls NY Bilingual Ed Program Detrimental to English Language Learners

U.S. English Chairman Calls NY Bilingual Ed Program Detrimental to English Language Learners

September 17, 2014

Washington, DC—U.S. English Chairman Mauro E. Mujica today released the following statement in response to the passage of a strengthened bilingual education program in New York State.

The “Ensuring Equal Educational Opportunities for English Language Learners” program was passed by the New York State Board of Regents earlier this week. The program aims to ensure that students who are not proficient in English receive adequate instruction.

A significant change requires school districts to provide bilingual education whenever 20 or more students in a given grade level who speak the same language are enrolled in a district. Currently, school districts are required to provide bilingual education when 20 or more students in a grade level who speak the same language are enrolled in one particular school.

“English proficiency is crucial for success in the United States,” Chairman Mujica said. “Students who are limited English proficient are only half as likely to graduate high school as their English speaking peers, and these linguistic roadblocks are likely to continue into adulthood. Allowing non-English proficient students to learn alongside their native English speaking peers would help lead to faster language acquisition. Not to mention, more than 230,000 non-English speaking students are enrolled in the New York State school system and 173 languages are spoken statewide. Requiring bilingual education for any language spoken by more than 20 students in a particular grade across an entire district holds schools accountable to an exceptional expense.”

“Rather than spending additional resources to educate foreign language speaking students in their native language, school districts would be better serving these students by giving them the gift of English proficiency and integrating them into mainstream classes as soon as possible,” Mujica concluded.

Additional regulatory changes concerning English language learners have been opened to public comment and will be reviewed by the New York State Board of Regents in upcoming monthly meetings.

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