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| Revival is near; but are we listening? |
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I remember the battles for Bilingual Education that we so ingloriously engaged upon with the proprietors of our children’s education back in the 1970’s. The idea of Americans speaking more than one language was at the core of the debates. After all, language is power and the ability to use it effectively gives the powerless a tool to achieve equity and social justice. Why not create children who are bi-literate and mask it under cultural deficiency theory, lack of intelligence or some other absurd rationalization rather than teach children properly?
During those turbulent times, mono-lingualism moved from de facto to de jure status as states from throughout the nation voted in English Only laws. Currently, English is the Official language of the State of Red. Language victories were far and few between as Non English speakers continued to drown in the waters of linguistic imperialism. Children had again become wedged in between political squabbles.
Revival may be on the forefront. In a class action lawsuit filed “on behalf of several Colorado families seeking to join the state school finance lawsuit,” a courageous community in a small rural community referred to as Lobato v. Colorado has once again opened the doors for debate. Poor rural families have suffered from the inequities of the educational system for too long. Families whose vulnerabilities have never been addressed “seek a ruling that Colorado’s inadequate school funding for low income and English Language Learner students violates their rights under the Colorado Constitution.” Parents are arguing that Colorado has failed to provide enough resources to educate their children properly.
The Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF) is handling the case. Attorneys will argue that “funding for facilities in property-poor school districts are insufficient and that communities have been stripped of local control.” Essentially, the constitutionality of the public school finance system is under glass on this one. Local control in Denver Public Schools usually translates into what the board dictates. Collaborative Decision- Making models are prime examples. You can decide as long as it is within our psychological parameters.
Funds allocated to schools come from the mill levies imposed upon property owners. For the longest time, rich communities amassed multiple resources to feed their insatiable desires to control while poor communities did without. Other laws were finally passed that provided remedies to poor communities. The distribution mechanisms also become political animals.
At least two amendments to the Colorado Constitution are being contested as part of the legal rationale. The first is the controversial Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) that seemingly “restricts local school communities from generating additional revenues needed to provide a thorough and uniform system and to exercise meaningful control.” The second one is the Gallagher Amendment, approved in 1982 and “meant to stabilize property values and assessments by fixing rates for nonresidential and residential real property.”
The poverty by plaintiffs in the case has increased considerably. According to data used in the case, “the school districts attended by Plaintiff-Intervenor children contain much higher rates of low income enrollment, from 57% in Greely 6 School District to 78% in Sheridan School District in the 2009-20 school year.” The reality is when families suffer from poverty; access to necessary “educational capital” is restricted resulting in lack of building human capital. There appears to be an “irrational” exclusion of children from poor families driven by the contradictions in public policy.
Other data indicates that the growth in English Language Learners (ELL) has tripled over the past 15 years. “Presently, there are approximately 100,000 ELL students in Colorado who speak over 200 different languages.” Let’s hope that they don’t become the illiterates in society, forming a new permanent underclass of worker bees.
The hodgepodge of contradictory provisions in state laws has complicated the situation. For example, under the English Language Proficiency Act (ELPA), “funding to school districts is restricted to two years per ELL student, which is wholly irrational when compared to the amount of time that research indicates is necessary for ELL students to become academically proficient in the English Language.” English speaking children take 12 years of English classes and guess what? They often exit school systems unable to read, write or speak proper English and I don’t mean Gentleman’s English. Why a different standard?
This is old news. During the Bilingual Education Wars in several school districts in this state, credence was seldom given to methodologically sound research. Attitudes have a way of preventing social change, especially when the power of those in control is challenged.
I recollect Dr. Steven Krashen’s “Under Attack: The Case Against Bilingual Education,” where he presented reasonable scientific evidence that Bilingual Education works. However, the politics of bilingual education coupled with an attitude of English Only coalesced to a point where public policy makers, namely Board of Education pundits, refused to listen. What a contradiction, an unwillingness to use data as a tool for shaping public policy in an educational institution.
Revival is near; but are we listening? Open the casket and hear the rankling noises of the many lost souls who were buried in English Only cemeteries.
Dr. Ramón Del Castillo is an Independent Journalist.
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