English First Foundation Issue Brief

produced by English First Foundation

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Springfield, VA 22151

(permission to reproduce is granted, provided credit is given to English First Foundation)

Comparative Costs of Bilingual Programs: The New York Case Study

Bilingual education in New York State is a case study in how good intentions can create a vast and expensive network which is ever searching for more problems to solve.

New York State allotted $26,780,176 in all forms of aid for 122,041 limited English proficient (LEP) students in fiscal year 1989-90.<1> This amounts to $219.44 per student served.

Like many government programs, once a program is in place, the bureaucrats who run it search out an ever-expanding list of people who "need" the program but are not being served. Fully 121 separate languages have been identified as being spoken by at least one LEP student.<2> One might think that would be a sufficiently full plate for any agency. But on February 16-18, 1990, "a statewide institute" was held to discuss special programs for "students from the English speaking Caribbean."<3>

Under New York education regulations, a student is considered LEP if he or she scores "at or below the 40th percentile on a standardized English test."<4> This definition of LEP has suffered from inflation over time. The higher the cutoff score is, the more children who are eligible for bilingual programs.

Thus, in a 1975 court case, Aspira of New York v. Board of Education of New York, Aspira argued against any minimum English proficiency cutoff score (which meant all students would be eligible), while the defendants suggested a 10th percentile cutoff (which would mean 90% of the students would not be eligible) since "there were monolingual English speaking students in regular classrooms who scored below this [10th percentile]."<5> job in an English-speaking society is evidently no reason why he or she should have to understand English to deal with the guidance counselor.

Schools can also expect more demands from parents whose ancestors come from less favored language groups to get the same services given to more favored language groups. The Division of Bilingual Education conducted parent conferences in Japanese even though its figures showed just 590 immigrant students from that nation in 1989-90.<6> That same year, 1447 students arrived from India, 724 from Pakistan and 498 from Greece.<7> Some of these parents can be expected to feel discriminated against.

New York Endorses Bilingualism for All

New York's Board of Regents Committee on Elementary, Middle and Secondary Education approved an implementation plan for the Policy Paper on Bilingual Education at their April, 1989 meeting. This action meant that New York State was committed to "encourage bilingualism for all children in the state of New York" during 1992-2000.<8>

Toward this end, New York has spent over $10 million from 1988 to the end of fiscal year 1991 to fund "Two-Way Bilingual Education Programs" in which LEP students take classes which are conducted in their native language and English alongside English-proficient students.<9> In this way, both groups of students must learn a second language to do well in school.

These programs also have as an explicit goal "enhancing sensitivity and appreciation for cultural pluralism."<10> Multiculturalism, as implemented in New York State, has become a source of national controversy in its own right.<11>

The notion underlying this kind of program is that students who already speak English are disadvantaged just as students who do not speak English. The problem with this well-intentioned view is that the school day is limited. If each lesson must be conducted in two languages, there is accordingly half as much time to present new material as would exist in a one language classroom.

These programs may help reduce monolingualism among graduates of these programs but will not directly address other needs, like the low level of math and science achievement among American students.

Notes

<1> DIVISION OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION, NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGENTS POLICY PAPER AND PROPOSED ACTION PLAN FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN NEW YORK STATE (1991) at 6.

<2> Id. at 2.

<3> Id. at 18.

<4> Id at 6.

<5> Rossell & Baker, Selecting and Exiting Students in Bilingual Education Programs, 17 J. L. & EDUC. 589, 594 (1988).

<6> Id. at Appendix 1.

<7> Id.

<8> Id at 25.

<9> Id. at 4.

<10> Id.

<11> See, The Relationship Between Multicultural and Bilingual Education, available from English First Foundation.