www.esryle.comLOCAL NEWS ACROSS THE NATION
Posted on 08/27/2004 10:55:54 AM PDT by esryle
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa -- A public school refused to accept a second-grade student because she cannot speak Spanish.
Woodbury Elementary, in Marshalltown, is part of a pilot program that teaches students in Spanish half the day and English half the day. Students enrolled in second grade or higher must prove they can speak enough Spanish to keep up with the class.
Melody Morden said her niece Mikayla was rejected by the school because she cannot speak Spanish.
"I think (Mikayla) could probably catch on to the Spanish, but they don't even want to take a chance of that," Morden said.
Morden has no problem with learning a second language, but feels it should not be a criterion for admission to a public school.
Lisa Wymore is the bilingual coordinator at Woodbury Elementary. She said children who cannot speak either language by second grade will fall behind.
Makayla is not without options. Marshalltown has five other elementary schools where English is the primary language.
Today's report that the apocalypse is indeed upon us..
Stop funding the school immediately. Tax payer money should not be spent funding schools that refuse to admit english speaking children.
I'm OK with this, as long as the students must also prove that they can speak ENGLISH as well.
I have nothing against true bilingual eduaction. I have EVERYTHING against the sham of bilingual education that prevents Spanish speaking children from learning the proper English that they need to be successful in the workplace.
This is outrageous. I'd pull her from the public school system in a flash...I did it and I took out loans to do it.
I bet those who speak spanish don't have to prove they can speak enough English to keep up with the class.
I have nothing against true bilingual eduaction. I have EVERYTHING against the sham of bilingual education that prevents Spanish speaking children from learning the proper English that they need to be successful in the workplace.
Milliona and millions of $$$ have already been spent in California with this educational experiment.
They tried it for YEARS.
It was a total bust. The longer the kids were allowed to speak Spanish, the longer they refused to learn to speak and use English every day in every way.
After years of "schooling" they were basically unemployable. This creates a whole new class of welfare recipients.
"She said children who cannot speak either language by second grade will fall behind"
Is it EITHER or is it BOTH ? Or is it only is your are NOT a spanish speaker? (there are very very few people who can truthfully be described as Hispanic)
This is a good thing from the point of view of the government. More government dependents = more taxpayer money to squander and more bureaucrats to get sinecures. (All for the children of course.)
I have a bigger problem with the spelling of "Mikayla".
English exception only if wearing a 'Burka'.....
/ACLU-NEA
No, they didn't really try it. They used bilingual education as an excuse to teach the Spanish-speaking kids in Spanish so as not to damage their precious self-esteem.
Viva La Raza!
See the article posted below. I remember reading about this in the newspaper. A few years later I met George Louie, and his son, and for reasons I won't go into, decided to "google" him. This is typical of what I found. The solution: Sue the b*****ds, and try the case in the press.
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--George Louie worried that the biggest barrier to his young son's education would be found amid the crime, drugs and desperation of his inner-city neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. Then he learned what was going on in his son's kindergarten classroom.
Shortly after his son, Travell, started kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary School last September, Louie arrived almost an hour early to pick him up.
When Louie walked into his son's class, he was astonished. The teacher and 22 students were sitting in circle and speaking Cantonese, a Chinese dialect.
HIS SON, an African-American, sat in back of the room with three other students. Because they speak only English, the teacher and his assistant ignored them.
"They're robbing him of an education," Louie complains, a widower and amputee who lives on a Social Security disability pension, welfare and food stamps.
"I listened for 45 minutes, and not one word of English was spoken. Not even hello."
LOUIE WENT TO SEE Wendy Lee, the school principal. Lee offered to transfer Travell to another bilingual class in which English is spoken part of the time.
In this class, some lessons are given in English and then immediately translated into Chinese, while others are given only in Chinese.
Travell would be one of three or four native English speakers in that class of 27 children. Still, according to Louie, his son would "be getting a third or a half of an education."
COULDN'T MY SON be taught all subjects in English, like the vast majority of American students? Louie asked.
We don't offer full-time English language instruction in kindergarten, said Principal Lee. Besides, there are not enough non-Chinese to make an English class.
The school requires at least 26 students to form a new class, and there are only 20 non-Chinese students in kindergarten, Lee pointed out.
How will my son learn if he can't understand? Louie asked.
Lee replied coolly. The school district could bus him across town to a school that teaches its students in English.
WHY WASN'T I TOLD that son would be in a Chinese class? Louie asked, adding that state law requires a letter notifying parents before their children are put into bilingual classes.
Lee admits she didn't send the letter on time. "It was my oversight," she concedes. She sent the letter after he complained.
HOW COULD the Lincoln School put an African-American in a class composed mostly of people who don't speak English? Every kindergarten class is bilingual, Lee says.
Louie suspects another motive: money. The California state government and the federal government give public schools more money per pupil for students in bilingual education programs than those in English-only programs.
"Travell is being used to fill out the class and get more money for the school. But he's the one paying the price," charges Louie.
THE STATE and federal governments do provide more money for students who know little or no English than for those who speak English well, Lee admits. She wouldn't say how much more money her school received.
Bilingual teachers are paid on average $2,060 per year more than English language teachers.
The Oakland School District receives more than $4 million per year in federal dollars for its bilingual students.
THIS IS NOT an isolated case, critics charge.
"Many children have been dumped into bilingual programs in order to make more money for the school," says Jorge Amselle, a bilingual education expert at the Center for Equal Opportunity. He cites cases in California, New Mexico and Colorado.
The Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento, Calif.-based nonprofit law firm that is representing Louie in court, contends that it has identified more than 20 cases like Louie's in the Oakland School District alone.
If this is happening in IOWA, what will be next in border states--the requirement to speak Arabic??
Illegal immmigration is out of control, and Pres. Bush's "guest worker" program is about to be rolled out again at the RNC. "Amnesty" by any other name is still amnesty, and the majority of Americans want this invasion to stop.
Excuse me, but WHAT COUNTRY ARE WE IN?!!!
Ugh. Thanks for the copy. That's outrageous.
Let me make one thing clear. If I have to choose between this FAKE bilingual education and English Only I will pick English Only EVERY TIME. If we can't do bilingual education right, we shouldn't do it. In fact, I voted for the elimination of bilingual education in California for that very reason.
English should be the ONLY language spoken in AMERICA other than in foreign language classes...
Other than foreign exchange students...the only students in American tax payer funded public schools should be Americans....no illegal aliens....
PERIOD
>>Excuse me, but WHAT COUNTRY ARE WE IN?!!!<<
Mexico. Don't you recall a little treaty called "NAFTA"?
"I think (Mikayla) could probably catch on to the Spanish, but they don't even want to take a chance of that," Morden said
This woman has been brainwashed into actually thinking her niece should be required to speak spanish and seems almost apologetic that she can't!!!!!!!
Oh America how I miss thee.
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