A federal lawsuit that sought to end bilingual education at Albuquerque Public Schools might end up costing the district nearly $250,000.

Court documents filed recently show attorneys for bilingual education supporters who intervened in the lawsuit are asking for $246,971 in legal fees and costs. The attorneys worked on behalf of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and Multicultural Education and Training Advocacy Inc. of Massachusetts.

The lawsuit started out last year as an effort to eliminate bilingual education at APS. It was filed on behalf of 14 students by a conservative Washington, D.C., group that aims to cut bilingual programs nationally. The group, headed by Linda Chavez, argued that such programs fail to teach students English quickly enough, or not at all in some cases.

The suit evolved into an agreement to expand the district’s bilingual education programs after the supporters intervened.

“Those fees are justified not only in the sense that we helped APS defeat Linda Chavez’s (group), but we also got better programming and better services for bilingual students in New Mexico,” said Andrew Vallejos, a local attorney who helped represent the bilingual education supporters.

The court documents list four attorneys at hourly rates ranging from $140 to $225.

Vallejos said “we’re negotiating” with APS and added that the fees could end up being less. But he said APS also has to pay legal fees for its own attorneys.

Art Melendres, who represented APS, said Wednesday he could not comment because the matter is pending.

The lawsuit was filed in spring 1998 and was partially funded by the Center for Equal Opportunity.

It demanded that APS “cease from offering native language academic instruction.”

The American GI Forum and more than a dozen other organizations and individuals, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, intervened against the lawsuit.

“In our claims we were saying APS already had a fine program, they were just not implementing it correctly,” Vallejos said.

U.S. District Court Judge Martha Vazquez cleared the way in June for a settlement arrangement when she struck down most elements argued by Chavez’s group.

Later that month, the bilingual education supporters and APS agreed to a settlement that requires the school district to step up recruitment of bilingual education teachers, conduct better tracking of student progress and make the programs more consistent among schools.



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