Panel Votes on Bilingual Laws

Would allow waivers on school regulations

TRENTON—Assembly Education Committee members on Monday set the stage for letting local school districts avoid establishing costly bilingual programs as required by law and recently ordered by the attorney general.

In a party-line vote, the Republican-controlled committee voted 5-2 to allow the education commissioner to grant waivers to schools for part-time English-language programs rather than the full-time programs now required.

The committee also approved legislation requiring parental permission before placing students in bilingual classes.

Both bills, which have the support of the state Department of Education, are aimed at complying with a recent ruling by Attorney General Deborah Poritz. In September, Poritz ruled that the state Department of Education could no longer grant waivers to school districts that found it too difficult and costly to provide full-time bilingual education.

Poritz set a one-year deadline for districts to comply with the law requiring full-time bilingual classes, or for lawmakers to change the law.

Although the waiver proposal was applauded at the committee hearing by some school administrators, several teachers and parents voiced concerns.

Ellie Murray, who teaches English as a second language in Middlesex County, said her district includes students speaking 60 languages. She said waivers are needed because if her district must offer bilingual classes to those students, classroom space would be doubled and new teachers would be needed at a cost of roughly $ 2 million.

“Our alternative programs now are successfully educating our bilingual students,” Murray said. “Leave our programs intact.”

Frances Colon-Gibson, superintendent of the Magnolia School District in Camden County, disagreed with the proposed legislation, recalling her demeaning experiences as a non-English-speaking student in the 1950s.

“I have some serious concerns about the decisions we make, that we are more concerned with budgets and issues of staff,” Colon-Gibson said.

“We forget the most important issue, our children.”

Advocates of bilingual education, which teaches children in a mix of English and their native language until they are ready for classes taught completely in English, argue that special classes are needed to enable students to keep pace until they master English.

Assemblyman Rudy Garcia, D-Union City, said he planned to ask Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian, R-Warren, to postpone action on such legislation until a more comprehensive plan can be drafted. He opposed the legislation, arguing that schools should not only teach English but also educate.

“We can’t push ahead bad legislation just for the sake of meeting a budget deadline,” Garcia said.

Assemblyman John A. Rocco, R-Camden, the committee chairman, supported the proposal as a temporary solution to enable schools to plan for the upcoming school year. “This isn’t the ideal bill,” Rocco said.

He pledged to work on a long-term plan with Garcia.

On the bill that requires parental permission before placing students in bilingual classes, Assemblywoman Marion Crecco, R-Bloomfield the bill’s sponsor, said it is needed to encourage parental involvement and allow families to decide the best way to assimilate their children into American culture.

The Senate already has approved a similar bill.

But Josefina Vasquez, representing the parents of students in the bilingual program in the City of Passaic, said she feared school officials, hoping to avoid the cost of bilingual classes, would intimidate parents.

“We are afraid parents won’t have all the facts before them in their native language before making a decision,” Vasquez said.



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