ELL Funding is Good for Arizona’s Economy

by David Safier

(TASL) Ted Downing, a former State Representative who is a prof at UA, wrote a comment to my post, “WE NEED MORE TIME!” that adds to the conversation about funding for ELL programs. If we can show people the economic repercussions to Arizona of giving students who need to learn English an inferior education, he says, we have a better chance of swaying the legislature to fully fund ELL.

I fought this issue for 4 years while in the legislature, including my time as Ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee. David is right that the problem has become comparable to a liability law suit – cheaper to collect the profit and to pay the damages than fix the product. EXCEPT, that may not be true.

I suggest it is time for a COST/BENEFIT analysis of the loss of 19 years of quality education to the Arizona economy that has occured as a result of the legislature dragging its in-grown toenails on this question. To be defensible, the study needs to be methodologically sound – and it must be able to withstand criticism.

I say this as a Research Professor of Social Development at the U of Arizona. Certainly the Arizona legislature is not going to pay for this….so a private donor or organization must step forward.

Once the frame of the debate shifts from “those” children to the broader impact on the (failing) Arizona economy – sleeping giants may stop snoring.

Ted Downing
Former Member, Arizona Legislature
www.ted-downing.com