by Bradley W. Higgins
As a whole this program has been a failure since it has stared, in the last 5 years of testing students K thru 9 shows 70% of the students do not pass the minimum level for English as a second language knowledge base.
Now back when this program started there were approximately 1.2 million Spanish speaking students in US school, now there is over 5.5 million Spanish speaking students in US school districts as of 2007.
Now I am not attacking anyone that speaks Spanish, it is just a fact that we have more Spanish speaking students in the US school systems than any other ethnic back ground at this time. Anyone that knows me will tell you I'm all about people improving them self's to get ahead.
I grew up in a house that spoke Spanish but was encouraged to speak English more than Spanish, because we were in a country that it language is English.
Lets get back to the programs that are not working the way they are being run. We already spend an average $115.00 more on ELL students than a non-ELL student, and know they want us to raise that to $500.00 to $1200.00 per ELL student in the next few years. Not only that but the ELL outlook expects the Spanish speaking students to jump 15% in the next year.
Now if this was a stock investment you would have liquidated this trade due to the lost on investment not reaching the goal and you would have tried a new plan to reach the same goal, am I right? After all the goal is to get the ELL students to be productive in society that they are going to live in.
One of the biggest problems is when this ELL students go home they don't speak English nor are they encouraged too, they speak there native tongue at home and in the community they live in.
The parents for the most part don't care if there kids speak English, and if there Spanish speaking we have started reproducing state level paper work in Spanish so they don't have to learn how to read or speak English.
"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt January 03, 1919
I believe that if we helped neighboring countries with improving there school systems and making it more readily available. I believe it would cut down the cost of controlling spending. We are helping the people of Afghanistan right now in the same way we need to help our neighbors.
If we are going to spend US tax dollars in education should be spend it were it going to help the most for Spanish speaking students? Not only will this be cheaper in the long run for the US but it will help our neighbor build a stronger more stable economy for the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment