Latinos fear bilingual education at risk

Salary cuts, official's transfer raise concern

Houston’s Hispanic community is concerned that school officials may be moving toward weakening or dismantling bilingual education programs, a spokesman for a Latino organization said Saturday.

The concerns were voiced in response to a series of events, including a proposal to cut the pay of bilingual education substitutes, said Johnny Mata of the Houston-area chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Another concern was the transfer of Jose Hernandez from his position as assistant superintendent of multilingual programs, Mata said.

“The community wants to know whether all of these things are a coincidence,” Mata said.

The Houston Independent School District board recently approved a salary schedule that included a pay cut for “critical substitutes” — people with a college degree but who are not certified. Mata said about 80 percent of the substitutes are in bilingual education.

However, Superintendent Rod Paige said this week that he will ask the school board to postpone the pay cut for a year.

Mata said LULAC is concerned that the person who replaces Hernandez may support “fast-tracking” bilingual education students into English-only programs.

“Fast tracking is one size fits all, rather than a program that ranks stages depending on the ability of the child,” Mata said.

An HISD spokeswoman said Hernandez is assuming the position of executive director of HISD’s northwest district.

“We’re maintaining our bilingual education program,” spokeswoman Carmen Gomez said. “We value our bilingual education teachers greatly.”

She said bilingual education teachers get a stipend of $3,000.

Mata said LULAC also wants to put the school board on notice that it will push for a Hispanic to be the next superintendent.



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