Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information please visit Arizona Public Schools
In Arizona schools, it is estimated that 130,000 students have a language other than English as their first language. These youngsters are not fluent in English. Unless their English-language skills are brought up, how can they be expected to get a good education?
Arizona Schools Can't Wait
These students attending Arizona schools have the right to a good education and the fact that their mother tongue is something other than English is something that needs to be dealt with. Waiting won't change the situation or improve on it.
In fact, the longer these students have to wait to get the language training they need from Arizona schools, the more they may fall behind. How can the teacher evaluate what level the students are capable of working at if there are language barriers preventing them from communicating with each other effectively?
The longer Arizona schools wait to provide the resources these students need, the more likely it is that they will end up dropping out at some point because of failure to keep up to their peers, frustration, or some other factor. When kids drop out of school, it ends up costing all of us, whether they had been attending Arizona schools or not.
When a person is unable to speak English well, they are limited in the types of work they can pursue. They will likely be stuck in low-paying jobs with little chance for advancement or end up collecting social benefits. Arizona schools must provide the services these kids need to give them the best possible chance for future success.
Arizona Schools Must Comply with Federal Law
Federal law directs that all students must be given the opportunity to learn English. Some Arizona schools have not sent in the required paper work estimating the cost to fund English-language programs to the Department of Education. Administrators at Arizona schools are aware that they need to provide English programs to these students, so what is the hold up in getting the paperwork prepared and submitted?
The state will provide funding after the request has been reviewed. Arizona schools need to put the funding request closer to the top of their list of priorities right now. A deadline was given to them to get this done almost a year ago. If they go past that date, they run the risk of being fined $1 million per day until the papers are handed in.
This issue should never have gotten to this point. To the administrators at Arizona schools - get the papers handed in - NOW! Put the funding in place so that the students who need to learn English can do so. They deserve the same chance to learn as students who learned to speak English as their first language.
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