Bush "Class War" Budget Shortchanges Public Schools
The Bush Administration's FY2006 budget, unveiled on February 7, cuts federal spending on education by $530 million, eliminating 48 different programs, and – for the third year in a row – proposes no increase in spending for English language learners, the most rapidly growing sector of public school enrollment. Title III would be "level funded" at $676 million, or about $123 for each of the nation's 5.5 million ELLs. Amounts reaching the classroom would, of course, be considerably less.

Despite a modest boost for Title I, the Bush proposal falls far short of the promise of full funding for the No Child Left Behind Act – a deficit of $27 billion over the past four years, according to House Democrats. Simultaneously, the administration is asking Congress to expand mandatory high-stakes testing to high schools, another "unfunded mandate" for states and school districts.

Meanwhile, President Bush is sticking by his pledge to cut taxes for upper-income Americans. It's no wonder this budget is being called "class war from the top down." Click here for further details about the Bush budget plan.

NABE 2005 Sets All-Time Attendance Record
Now that final registration figures are available for NABE 2005, we are proud to announce that the 34th International Bilingual/Multicultural Education Conference, held in San Antonio, January 19-22, 2005, was the largest in our history. Total registration was 7,043 attendees from throughout the United States and several foreign countries. This broke the record set in 2000, the last time NABE held a conference in San Antonio, with about 6,800 registered.

We believe that NABE 2005 may have been the largest bilingual education conference ever held anywhere. It was also NABE's largest gathering of exhibitors, with almost every booth space taken in our exhibit hall. Conference headliners included Henry Cisneros, Alfie Kohn, Lily Eskelsen, Sonia Nieto, Sandra Cisneros, Stephen Krashen, Jim Cummins, Lily Wong Fillmore, Raul Yzaguirre, Monty Neill, Virginia Collier, Wayne Thomas, Yvonne Freeman, David Freeman, Angela Valenzuela, Alma Flor Ada, and many more. The complete program is still online.

Now on to NABE 2006 in Phoenix, next January 18-21. Registration and exhibitor information will be available in Spring 2005. Watch www.nabe.org for details.

OELA Director Departs
Maria Hernandez Ferrier, deputy assistant secretary of education and director of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) at the U.S. Department of Education, has announced her resignation. According to her January 21 statement, she has no immediate plans other than to return to her hometown of San Antonio, Texas.

Ferrier's tenure at OELA coincided with the transition from Title VII, a competitive grant program that gave priority to bilingual education, to NCLB, Title III, a formula-grant program that neither promotes nor prohibits native-language instruction. Thus Ferrier presided over a major shift in policy at what was once known as the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs. NABE wishes her well. The Bush administration has yet to name a replacement.

Teach English in China This Summer
Apply by March 25 for NABE's Summer Teaching Exchange Program in Suzou, China. The costs of roundtrip airfare from U.S. point of departure, housing and meals in China, and a week-long tourist excursion are fully covered by Chinese hosts. Participants must be NABE members who are certified in either bilingual education or ESL and prepared to teach English in grades 3-11. Click here for more details and an application form.

NCLB Resource Page
The NABE web site features a growing list of Internet resources on the No Child Left Behind Act, including key articles, research studies, government reports, news sources, and opinion articles. Click here to access this page.

Manage Your Online Subscriptions
NABE News Online and NABE News Digest are available to NABE members (and others, on special request). If we do not have your correct email address, please click here to subscribe. Or, if you would prefer not to receive these publications, you may click here to unsubscribe.

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