MANCHESTER—Republican 4th Senate District hopeful Susan Falcetta, who announced her candidacy Tuesday, says she opposes bilingual education because it is costly and harmful to students.

Falcetta, a member of the town’s board of education for the past three years, said Thursday that she believes classroom instruction should be in English only. Under bilingual education programs, students whose native language is not English are taught in both their native tongue and in English.

“In many ways, bilingual education cripples youngsters and their families. Being able to function among their peers is vital to self- esteem and their future success,” she said in a written statement. “We need to move them as quickly as possible to acquire English proficiency.”

Falcetta also pledged that, if elected, she would introduce legislation eliminating the state requirement for bilingual education. The state requires any school district with more than 20 students in a school building who share the same native language and have been identified as having limited English proficiency to offer a bilingual education program.

She said she would not, however, push to have existing bilingual programs eliminated, and would only recommend that local school systems consider other options.

None of the four towns in the 4th Senate District — Manchester, Glastonbury, Hebron and Bolton — meet that 20-student threshold. Both Manchester and Glastonbury, however, do have English as a Second Language programs, which Falcetta supports.

George DeGeorge, a bilingual education/ESL consultant for school districts in the state, said 17 school districts are required to offer bilingual education. About 60 offer ESL and some offer both. He said the difference between the two programs is that ESL is English-only instruction, while bilingual education uses the student’s native tongue and English.

He said the real key, regardless of which method is used, is to make sure that the program is a quality one.



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