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MILWAUKEE - A requirement that some
Milwaukee voucher schools switch to bilingual teaching programs is
among items in the pending state budget bill that are catching
criticism from voucher advocates.
The complaints surfaced days after the
Legislature's Joint Finance Committee approved its version of the
two-year budget last Friday. The Assembly plans to begin work on the
budget Thursday and vote on it next Wednesday.
The bilingual rule was inserted late in
the process at the initiative of state Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee.
The budget includes a cut of 2.5 percent per student in voucher
funding. The state also would cut aid to public schools by 2.5
percent.
About 20,000 students from low-income
Milwaukee families currently attend about 120 private schools in the
voucher program. The state provides vouchers worth up to $6,607 each
for tuition.
Under the bilingual provision, if more
than 10 percent of a voucher school's students had limited English
proficiency, the school would be required to have a
"bilingual-bicultural education program, beginning in the 2010-11
school year."
Terry Brown, president of St. Anthony
Catholic School, said the rule, combined with the budget cut, would
produce "a fiscal as well as an educational crisis" on
Milwaukee's largely Hispanic south side where the school is located.
St. Anthony has more than 1,000
students in a kindergarten through eighth grade program that features
an English immersion instructional program.
In other words, the focus is on
teaching in English, rather than the bilingual approach of teaching a
child from a Spanish- or Hmong-speaking family in both the other
language and English.
"There are any number of parents
who have specifically come to St. Anthony because we do not force
bilingual education on English language learners," he said.
Colon said he hasn't seen anything to
document the school's claims of success.
He said he put the bilingual
requirement in the budget on the belief that it would help children
learn English quickly.
The rule wouldn't affect St. Marcus
Lutheran School, but Principal Henry Tyson said he considers it a bad
idea educationally.
The state budget, due to take effect
July 1, must be passed by the Assembly and Senate and signed by Gov.
Jim Doyle to take effect.
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