by Joseph Weber
Nearly 1 million California students designated as English learners will no longer have to pass a set of tests and benchmarks to exit the program, under a new law signed Sunday by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In a story posted Sunday by The Los Angeles Times, the newspaper states that when a child enrolls in a California public school, families are asked what language is spoken at home and that as early as kindergarten, children who mainly speak a foreign language at home could be designated as an English learner and placed in language classes.
The story does not clearly state the number or percentage of students in such classes who are from another country.
The change is considered a major overhaul of a decades-old practice. Critics of the old practice said it has long held back students’ education.
They furthermore said too many students classified as English learners were held back months or even years after mastering the language. Under the new law, students will have to pass only one state-approved English assessment to show they are proficient, the newspaper also reports.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton told Fox News that if he wins, he will mandate English-only schools in elected, according to Mediaite.
“Well, look, the problem is it’s not just people with a second language, it’s hardly anyone can speak English properly because our schools are such a disaster. You’ve got now less than half of the kids in California public schools meet basic standards in English even though we spend nearly the highest level in the country. And so, we’ve got to get back to teaching kids to read. And this is our country! We speak English here!” Hilton said.
“It’s denying opportunity to anyone — look, I’m a legal immigrant and I want every legal immigrant in California to have a shot of the California dream. That’s not going to happen if you can’t speak English properly,” he noted. “And this is not a partisan issue. Many years ago Reed Hastings, who is a big backer of Democrats, who was head of the California State Board of Education — he fought strongly to make sure English only was the way we taught kids in school because that’s the way to give them opportunities.”
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Joseph Weber is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
