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The State Leaves California’s English Language Learners Students Behind Sacramento, CA - Californians Together, a coalition of organizations which advocating for adequate programs, materials, resources and instruction, and resources for the English Learner (EL) protest the exclusion of many teachers of English Learners in bilingual classrooms using the alternate format of the state adopted Language Arts textbooks from the $ 133 million dollars annually in Reading First funding to be received by California for the next six years ! students English Language Learner (ELL) students,A demand letter from Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy, Inc. (META) and other legal services organizations will be submitted to the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction declares that this exclusion contradicts the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 because the provisions of Reading First does not call for the exclusion of funding of bilingual classrooms. It states, “The State Board's policy is arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory in that it explicitly excludes a discreet class of students -- language minority/national origin children -- from the benefits afforded to other children under the Reading First program.” These funds are intended to reach students such as our English Learners and their teachers. The demand letter calls for the immediate elimination of such an exclusion and notification to schools with bilingual classrooms of their ability to participate in the Reading First program and receive its funds. , will be holding a press conference on Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at
11 a.m. on the North steps of the State Capitol.to call attention to the
Coalition members will use the press conference to call attention to the
failure of California’s state agencies have once again failed to
ensure equal educational opportunity and educational equity for the state’s
1.6 million English Learners in our public schools. Each year as the scores
for all students haves improved the achievement gap between English learners
and English only students has grown. This funding would provide training,
materials and other resources needed to help close the gap. Californian’s
Together and the demand letter calls upon the State to rescind its Reading
First eligibility criteria. reexamine its policies and its commitment
to equal educational opportunity for all children.The demand letter concludes
by stating, “Frankly, at a time of devastating budget constraints,
it is shameful that the CDE and the Board would blatantly deny children
who attend the poorest schools, who have access to the least experienced
and trained teachers and who are obviously in most need of these programs,
such critical funding and services”. The press conference coincides with the submission of a demand letter from Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy, Inc. (META) and other legal services organizations to the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction regarding their policy excluding teachers of EL students from receiving professional development training under “Reading First”, one of the primary funding programs under the No Child Left Behind Act. Californians Together will also call attention to the disproportionate impact of the Governor’s proposed budget cuts on the neediest students in the state – English Learners and poor children. In a recent proposal for mid-year budget cuts, tOf particular concern is the cut of over $656 million that districts use to ensure EL academic success by placing such funds in a block grant for districts. Placing funds such as Economic Impact Aid in a block grant will erase many of the basic protections and accountability measures tied to those funds, including the provisions requiring consultation with parent advisory committees. he Governor suggested folding over 5 billion dollars in educational funding into block grants. Of the 5 billion dollars, $656,138,000 that districts use to continuously ensure English Learner academic success will be cut. At the same time as funds to the state’s most vulnerable children are on the chopping block, the Governor proposes that only $13,000,000 should be cut from correctional programsState Board of Education continues to hire high-priced outside consultants and lawyers to duplicate work done by hundreds of employees in the Department of Education. Californians Together calls upon the State to re-examine its priorities and its commitment to equal educational opportunity for all children. For all of the legislative and private sector complaints that students are ill-prepared at the time of their High School graduation, it is not education that they deem sacred. As a result of these cuts, second language learners, immigrant students and poor children will have even fewer opportunities to access the core curriculum. This would go against the spirit of Lau v. Nichols and Castaneda v. Pickard, two critical federal cases that paved the way for improved opportunities for all people, regardless of language abilit y.
WHO: Assembly Member Marco Firebaugh (invited) WHERE: North Steps of the Capitol |