Bush Budget: More Sacrifices in Store for Education
For 2007, the Bush Administration is calling for substantial cuts in school spending on top of substantial cuts already approved for the current fiscal year. Again the White House seeks to eliminate numerous education programs (42 in all) and to "level fund" Title III formula grants for English language learners at $669 million, or $122 per eligible child.

President Bush is also calling for major cuts in health care for the poor and elderly, job training, environmental protection, and National Parks, combined with significant increases in spending for the military and border enforcement. And of course, no Republican budget would be complete without major tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

According to the Committee for Education Funding, a coalition of education associations including NABE, the Bush budget would reduce federal spending for education by $2.1 billion, or 3.8 percent. This follows a $530 million, or 1 percent, cut voted by Congress in December. When rising enrollments are considered, especially for ELLs, the impact is even greater. Click here for full details.

The budget includes no additional funding for Title I, other than a $200 million "school improvement" program to help states restructure schools that fail to make "adequate yearly progress" targets under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, released an analysis of the Bush budget in which he accused the administration of underfunding NCLB by $55 billion over the past five years.

Arizona Fined for Refusal to Fund ELL Programs
Since January 25, a federal judge has been fining the state of Arizona $500,000 per day for failing to spend adequate sums to educate English language learners. The fines will be used to pay for programs that the state legislature has thus far failed to fund, in defiance of a court order issued 6 years ago in the Flores v. State of Arizona case.

Arizona currently provides school districts an additional $360 per child to educate the state's 154,000 ELLs, an amount far below the actual cost. According to a study commissioned by the state, the legislature should be providing $1,200 to $2,500 per child. But a Republican-sponsored plan, passed two weeks ago, would have provided only about $510. Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, vetoed the bill and Judge Raner Collins imposed sanctions. If the legislative inaction continues, the fines are scheduled to rise in steps to $2 million per day.

Earlier, the judge suspended Arizona's high-school graduation test for ELLs until he is satisfied that they are receiving an adequate education. Tim Hogan, the lawyer representing language minority parents in the Flores case, said that 82 percent of ELLs had failed the test last year. When he inquired about the 18 percent who reportedly had passed, the Arizona Department of Education conceded that these students had been misclassified – they were actually English-proficient.

Shakeup in House Education Committee
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), who was elected House Majority Leader on February 2, is leaving his post as chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The Republican leadership has named Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) to head the education panel.

McKeon, 67, was first elected to the House in 1992. His voting record has been consistently conservative and includes active support for English Only legislation. In 1999, McKeon cosponsored a bill to require parents' written consent before children could be enrolled in bilingual education.

An architect of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Boehner has been one of the law's fiercest defenders, although last year he broke with the White House and resisted calls from President Bush to expand NCLB testing requirements to high school. His departure creates political uncertainty as Congress prepares to reauthorize NCLB in 2007.

McKeon has also been a staunch proponent of NCLB. But, amid mounting dissatisfaction with the law in both parties, it is an open question whether the new chairman can hold together a coalition to stave off major changes.

ASU Study: NCLB Threatens Revitalization of Native American Languages
The expansion of high-stakes testing in English, mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, is impeding efforts to save tribal languages, according to a new study by Mary Eunice Romero Little and Teresa McCarty of Arizona State University. The report is available online at ASU's Education Policy Studies Laboratory.

Native American languages are already severely endangered – only 34 out of 210 are still being learned by children, the authors say – and the pressure to make "adequate yearly progress" on English-language achievement tests is making things worse.

"NCLB is having a chilling effect on the ability of tribal communities to provide linguistically, culturally, and academically rich curricula for Native students, even in nonpublic, federal, and community- and tribally-controlled schools," Romero and McCarty conclude. They add that "research on the consequences of NCLB for Native American and other language minority learners suggests that NCLB is widening rather than closing the achievement gap."

NABE Names New Editorial Team for Bilingual Research Journal
Professors Terrence Wiley and Alfredo Artiles, both of Arizona State University, will be taking over this spring as Co-Editors of the Bilingual Research Journal, NABE's premier academic publication. Wiley and Artiles were named after their proposal was chosen through a competitive process.

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