ELL Funding Revisited

by David Safier

(TASL) Yet another judge has ruled that legislators have to adequately fund English Language Learner programs. Not only that, they have to do it by a March 4 deadline or suffer sanctions and/or fines.

The cost of complying with the judge’s order could exceed $100 million per year.

Rock, meet hard place.

I can already hear conservative legislators complaining, “This is a very bad time to ask for more money. We need to delay ELL funding until we work out our current budget problems.”

The argument, if it were made, would be the height of hypocrisy. The Republican-led legislature has delayed ELL funding through good times and bad. In her ruling, Judge Marsha S. Berzon noted, “this dispute . . . has been in the courts longer than it takes a student to go from kindergarten to college.”

Maybe this is a tough time for the legislature to find new money to fund the program, but the anti-tax legislature has made things tough for ELL students for decades. In a very real sense, they have imposed a “Language Tax” on these children for years. The tax has robbed them of the ability to become proficient in English, which has resulted in a lifelong loss of wages.

I suppose I should add, a lowered quality of education for any segment of our society means a less educated populace, which robs the state of jobs and revenue. We’re all paying the “Language Tax” every day.

Don’t ask the judge, or those of us who support adequate ELL funding, “Where are we supposed to find the money?” Find it. If it means closing tax loopholes or, heaven forefend, raising taxes on those who can most afford it to raise the level of education for those who can least afford to go without a good education, then do it.

Brought to you by the newly formed Tax-And-Spend-Liberal (TASL) Educational News Service.