Bilingual Education Subject of House GOP Budget Cutting

House Republicans want to cut bilingual education budgets by as much as 50 percent, but the Clinton administration is fighting for the programs, saying some children learn better in their native language.

ANDREA ARCENEAUX, Anchor: [in progress] -is a language barrier. Some feel that educating these people in both English and their native language is the best approach. Others, however, disagree. In today’s installment of our series ‘Spending Down,’ CNN’s Carl Rochelle reports on the move to cut funds for bilingual education.

TEACHER: ‘Flora’ – what does it mean? Meaning? ‘Flora.’ Anybody, raise your hand? [speaks in Spanish]

CARL ROCHELLE, Correspondent: This Fairfax County, Virginia science class is bilingual. These students speak some English, but their ability to understand questions without help is limited. Some Republicans want to take that help away as part of the congressional effort to spend down the budget. Wisconsin Representative Toby Roth backs legislation to cut funding for bilingual education.

Rep. TOBY ROTH (R-WI): Well, I feel that we are one nation, one people, and we have to have a- one language. And I feel that bilingual education, every study proves that, shows that it holds youngsters back. It doesn’t allow them to compete.

CARL ROCHELLE: According to the Education Department, more than two million public school students face a language barrier everyday.

JIM LYONS, National Association for Bilingual Education: Thousands of children will not be learning English as quickly as they are with- with these programs. They will not also be learning the content, subject matter of math, science, history, civics and all the other things that our schools have to teach and the children have to learn.

CARL ROCHELLE: Politicians like to refer to the United States as ‘the great melting pot,’ a place where millions stream through Ellis Island searching for a common ideal – freedom – and adopted a common language – English.

Rep. NEWT GINGRICH (R-GA), House Speaker: And I’ll just say it flatly, I think anybody who argues we ought to have more than one common language doesn’t understand anything about how human societies operate.

JORGE GONZALEZ, Teacher: You’re going to write about the trip.-

CARL ROCHELLE: -Bilingual instructor Jorge Gonzalez was born in the U.S. and raised in Puerto Rico where the schools he attended taught students only in Spanish.

JORGE GONZALEZ: We can’t afford to wait three generations for them to become part of the mainstream. I mean, we have to get ’em, you know, fluent in the language.

CARL ROCHELLE: The Clinton administration wants to continue current programs, but House Republicans want to cut bilingual funds by at least 50 percent. Gonzalez says if that happens it could mean some of these students will face a less productive life and a lower standard of living. Carl Rochelle, CNN, Washington.



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