A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

  FOR RELEASE                            Contact:  Ivette Rodriguez   March 15,1995                                      (202) 401-0262

Rescissions Jeopardize Learning for Non-English Speaking Children

In Portland, Maine, more than three dozen three- and four- year-olds speak Russian, Polish, Chinese, Farsi or Sudanese at home.

In Minneapolis, more than 100 pre-schoolers come from homes where Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese or Cambodian are spoken. In San Ysidro, Calif., hundreds of children are Spanish- speaking.

And all of them are learning the English they will need to enter kindergarten and first grade through programs funded by the U.S. Education Department.

"In communities all across the country, we find families whose first language is not English and children who need the kind of help to learn English and the basics that bilingual education provides," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.

"Last year, the Congress adopted the national goal that every child will enter school ready to learn," Riley said. "We cannot go back on that commitment."

A proposed congressional action would cut $38.5 million from current federal bilingual education funds as part of a $1.7 billion package of education cuts -- a move that could dismantle existing programs that encourage youngsters to learn English.

"Bilingual education is a means to ensure access to quality education and to promote educational excellence for children who come to school speaking various languages," says Eugene E. Garcia, director of the department's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs. "It provides children with the foundation and skills they will need to succeed in school and presents them with challenging learning experiences."

Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act in 1968 to serve the increasing number of linguistically and culturally diverse children who were often struggling to keep up in classes they could hardly understand.

Title VII of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 continues the support for state and local efforts to help these students achieve to challenging academic standards.

The House Appropriations Committee has voted to rescind federal funds presently used for programs to serve special populations, such as preschoolers. The cuts would also eliminate bilingual instructional projects emphasizing mathematics and science training, peer learning projects for students, and family English literacy initiatives.

Established in 1974, the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs assists school districts in providing education opportunities for 300,000 children whose primary language is other than English.