Fed: SF Must Fight Bilingual-Ed Cuts

A federal education official played a game of “El Gato Pide Rincon” (The Kitty Goes to the Corner) with second-graders at Kaune Elementary on Wednesday, but he may have been more interested in a political game of ” Capture the Flag.”

U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary Mario Moreno visited some of Santa Fe schools Wednesday, trying to mobilize parents over a congressional funding debate of several education programs, including bilingual education.

In a speech to several Kaune Elementary parents, he estimated that New Mexico’s bilingual education budget will be cut by $2.2 million in federal funds if a bill on education, already approved by the House of Representatives, is approved by the Senate.

Congressional budget cutters are willing to slice approximately $76 billion off federal spending for education in the coming fiscal year, he said. Moreno wouldn’t say how much of those cuts are from budget growth projections made earlier this year and how much are from 1994-95’s federal education’s budget.

“They want to cut the budget this year and we are expecting the highest number of students — about 53 million nationwide — to attend all types of school nationwide in 1997,” Moreno said.

Selma Sierra, a spokeswoman for Rep. Joe Skeen, R-N.M., said from her Washington, D.C. office that Republican budget cutters looked at education programs with high administrative overheads and low impact.

Moreno’s statement “is simply not accurate. We began by looking at priorities in these tough budget times and were looking to cut high administrative costs and programs that lack substantive goals,” Sierra said.

She said that a portion of the House’s education bill would provide $50 million for bilingual and immigrant education for the coming fiscal year. That’s the same amount as this fiscal year, she said.

After watching a bilingual presentation by Kaune students, Moreno said he graduated from a West Texas high school without the benefit of bilingual education.

Moreno, 47, whose parents are Mexican-American, said he was raised speaking Spanish at home, but struggled when he entered school because he couldn’t speak English, the language taught at the public school.

“I know what some people think, that it was hard, but I made it through. But I want to tell you, of the 19 children who spoke only Spanish in my first- grade class, only three of us graduated from high school,” he said.

He believes funding of bilingual education should continue at its present rate with federal funding.

Three parents who attended the events at Kaune said they weren’t aware that bilingual education may be at risk. They said they didn’t want bilingual education cut.



Comments are closed.