Funding Sliced in Half for Limited-English Ed
Lori Baker
Money for limited-English students has been cut in half at the same time that a federal court has ruled Arizona must do more for them. An average of $1,589 was spent on each pupil in the 1998-99 school year, down from $3,210 the previous year, a report released Wednesday said. The drop resulted from 20,000 more limited-English students streaming into schools, as programs to teach them lost $150 million in federal, state and local money. Also, the report said, students are staying longer in special language programs: five years compared with three years. There was slight progress. The number of limited-English students who mastered English increased to 5.5 percent in 1999, up from 4 percent the previous year. The report sent to the Legislature by state schools chief Lisa Graham Keegan has experts again calling for the state to reform how it funds and teaches such students. This is especially important, they say, because a federal judge in Tucson ruled last month that the state must spend more on limited- English students. But reform is hampered because even Keegan admits the report -- 2 inches thick and a year in the making -- may not be accurate. School districts report the numbers, but the state Department of Education does not verify every statistic. "The Legislature is under a federal court order to do something," said Tim Hogan, one of the attorneys for Nogales parents who successfully sued the state to get more money. "A good place to start would be by figuring what it should cost to properly educate (limited English proficient) students." Hogan called the state's LEP report "absurd" because the data are unreliable. A 1988 study determined that it cost an additional $464 a year to educate each limited-English student, but the state pays only $162. The difference falls on school districts, which often dip into other programs to cover the shortfall. Legislators are considering having a task force look into the cost of educating all children, including those lagging in English, and a report would be made for the 2001 legislative session. But Hogan said that's not soon enough. He plans to go back to court if the Legislature doesn't act this session. Bills to increase money for bilingual education this year have been killed in committee. Sen. Joe Eddie Lopez, D-Phoenix, hopes to resurrect his bill that would pump more money into bilingual education. "We have a 20,000 student increase and there is no additional funding to provide services to them," he said. Lopez also is alarmed that many teachers working with limited- English students aren't certified to teach them. There were 3,634 LEP teachers without credentials in English as a Second Language or bilingual education in the 1999 school year, up from 2,490 the previous year. "The numbers increased by more than 1,000 in one year. It's very bad," Lopez said. There were 132,806 students reported in LEP programs speaking more than 40 languages in the 1998-98 year, compared with 112,522 in the 1997-98 year. However, state, federal and local school district money spent on these programs dropped from about $360 million to $209 million. To help meet the need, programs outside schools work with limited- English students. Rey Rodarte is an outreach supervisor at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Scottsdale. On Wednesday, students were tutored in English at the Rose Lane branch. "The reason why this is so important is if the kids go straight from school to home, very few of their parents can even speak English, so they would drop behind their peers in terms of learning," he said. "They would never be able to keep up with their peers if it was not for this program." |