The New York City government greatly reduced money for bilingual education in public schools, causing more immigrant students to drop out of school, and fewer to graduate on time.
The Bush administration’s education policy, particularly the “No Child Left Behind” Act, gives New York State middle and high schools the added burden of lowering the drop-out rate, and insuring that students graduate on time. To meet its mandates, many public schools are forcing English Language Learner (ELL) students to enter General Education (GED) courses.
On June 27, a number of immigrant and citizens’ rights and benefits advocate groups held a press conference on this problem moderated by Sung-yun Kang of the Flushing YMCA. Ms. Kang said, “Several New York City schools have tried to improve their graduation rates, by, first of all, blocking entry to all ELL students, and secondly, forcing parents into agreeing to enter their children into GED programs.”
Ms. Kang is referring to the fact that students entered into GED programs do not appear in the schools’ overall graduation statistics. Compliance with federal law therefore appears to be achieved.
Ms. Kang pointed out that schools are also attempting to satisfy federal policy regarding the five-subject Regent’s exam. All New York State students, including ELL students, are required to pass this examination. However, the “bilingual” English exam is actually set up for native speaker students. Many ELL students have difficulty passing this section of the exam.
Advocacy groups therefore expect that many ELL students will drop out of high school. It is expected that the drop-out rate will be as high as 50 percent.
If the City government cuts support to after-school or summer school programs for ELL students due to current budget problems, the rate of ELL high school drop-outs will definitely increase.
Earlier this year, Mayor Bloomberg promised support for bilingual language education, vowing that, “We will add $20 million for bilingual language education programs.”
Advocacy groups were very critical of the mayor’s promise since there was no sign of any action!
