Assembly Takes Aim at Bilingual Education

Supports Waivers, More Parental Input

TRENTON—Significant changes in the way school districts educate children who do not speak English appear likely in the wake of three Assembly votes Monday.

One bill would give parents more power over whether their children should be enrolled in bilingual education programs. Another would grant school districts waivers if they want to opt out of some regulations designed to help students who do not speak English.

The two bills, passed earlier by the Senate, move on to Governor Whitman.

A third bill, introduced as a compromise to replace the other two measures, would restructure state bilingual education requirements. The fate of that bill is undecided. Its sponsor, Assemblyman Rudy Garcia, D-Hudson, crafted the measure to allow flexibility for districts while requiring some form of bilingual education.

The Assembly approved the measure on a bipartisan 69-6 vote. But Garcia said he was unable to get Senate Republicans to sign on to his bill as a replacement for the other measures. His bill moves on to the Senate.

“I’m confident Governor Whitman will not sign the other bills,” Garcia said, adding that he has administration support for the compromise measure. Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz has endorsed Garcia’s efforts.

The bill providing waivers to districts is sponsored by Senate President Donald T. DiFrancesco, R-Union County, and Sen. John P. Scott, R-Lyndhurst. Critics have said the measure would dismantle the bilingual education system without protecting children who need such education.

The state already is granting waivers, but the attorney general ruled recently that they are illegal. The DiFrancesco-Scott bill would make those waivers legal.

That bill, and the measure giving parents more control over whether their children should be enrolled in bilingual programs, passed the Assembly without Democratic support.

Rae Hutton, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans, said the door was open to Garcia’s compromise bill. Scott, DiFrancesco, and Senate Education Committee Chairman John H. Ewing, R-Somerset County, “will work with Garcia to craft legislation that is agreeable to all, as well as the governor,” she said.

Garcia’s bill includes a provision allowing parents to remove their children from bilingual education programs, subject to the county superintendent.

Under current law, districts must provide a full curriculum in a foreign language if they have 20 or more students who speak the same foreign language. Garcia’s bill would loosen those requirements to districts that have 20 or more students within two grade levels, or at the high school, who speak the same language.

But some legislators, including Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, R-Montvale, oppose Garcia’s bill because it requires additional programs for districts with 10 to 19 students in two consecutive grade levels who speak the same language.



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