| INCUMBENT |
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Party | YES |
| Name | Yes |
| Won | 11/05/2002 |
| Votes | 1,359,935 (67.98%) |
| Margin | 719,410 (+35.96%) |
| Term | 11/06/2002 - 12/31/9999 |
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Initiatives and Referenda DETAILS |
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| Parents |
> United States > Massachusetts > Public Questions > 2002 Initiatives and Referenda
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| Established | January 01, 2002 |
| Disbanded | Still Active |
| Contributor | *crickets chirp* |
| Last Modified | *crickets chirp* August 08, 2004 07:17pm |
| Description |
This proposed law would replace the current state law providing for
transitional bilingual education in public schools with a law requiring that, with
limited exceptions, all public school children must be taught English by being
taught all subjects in English and being placed in English language classrooms.
The proposed law would require public schools to educate English learners
(children who cannot do ordinary classwork in English and who either do not speak
English or whose native language is not English) through sheltered English
immersion program, normally not lasting more than one year. In the program, all
books and nearly all teaching would be in English, with the curriculum designed for
children learning English, although a teacher could use a minimal amount of a
child’s native language when necessary. Schools would be encouraged to place in
the same classroom children who are from different native-language groups but
who have the same level of English skills. Once a student is able to do regular
schoolwork in English, the student would be transferred to an English language
mainstream classroom. These requirements would not affect special education
programs for physically or mentally impaired students or foreign language classes
for children who already know English.
Parents or guardians of certain children could apply each year to have the
requirements waived, so as to place their child in bilingual education or other
classes, if the parents or guardians visit the school to be informed, in a language
they can understand, about all available options. To obtain a waiver, the child must
either (1) already know English; or (2) be at least 10 years old, and the school
principal and staff believe that another course of study would be better for the
child’s educational progress and rapid learning of English; or (3) have special
physical or psychological needs (other than lack of English skills), have already
spent 30 days in an English language classroom during that school year, the school
principal and staff document their belief that the child’s special needs make another
course of study better for the child’s educational progress and rapid learning of
English, and the school superintendent approves the waiver. If 20 or more students
in one grade level at a school receive waivers, the school would have to offer either
bilingual education classes providing instruction in both the student’s native
language and English or classes using other generally recognized educational
methodologies permitted by law. In other cases a student receiving a waiver would
have to be allowed to transfer to a school offering such classes.
A parent or guardian could sue to enforce the proposed law and, if
successful, would receive attorney’s fees, costs and compensatory money damages.
Any school employee, school committee member or other elected official or
administrator who willfully and repeatedly refused to implement the proposed law
could be personally ordered to pay such fees, costs, and damages; could not be
reimbursed for that payment by any public or private party; and could not be
elected to a school committee or employed in the public schools for 5 years.
Parents or guardians of a child who received a waiver based on special needs could
sue if, before the child reached age 18, they discover that the application for a
waiver was induced by fraud or intentional misrepresentation and injured the
child’s education.
All English learners in grades kindergarten and up would take annual
standardized tests of English skills. All English learners in grades 2 and up would
take annual written standardized tests, in English, of academic subjects. Severely
learning disabled students could be exempted from the tests. Individual scores
would be released only to parents, but aggregate scores, school and school district
rankings, the number of English learners in each school and district, and related data
would be made public.
The proposed law would provide, subject to the state Legislature’s
appropriation, $5 million each year for 10 years for school committees to provide
free or low cost English language instruction to adults who pledged to tutor English
learners.
The proposed law would replace the current law, under which a school
committee must establish a transitional bilingual education program for any 20 or
more enrolled children of the same language group who cannot do ordinary
classwork in English and whose native language is not English or whose parents do
not speak English. In that program, schools must teach all required courses in both
English and the child’s native language; teach both the native language and English;
and teach the history and culture of both the native land of the child’s parents and
the United States. Teaching of non-required subjects may be in a language other
than English, and for subjects where verbalization is not essential (such as art or
music), the child must participate in regular classes with English-speaking students.
Under the current law, a child stays in the program for 3 years or until the
child can perform successfully in English-only classes, whichever occurs first. A test
of the child’s English skills is given each year. A school committee may not transfer
a child out of the program before the third year unless the parents approve and the
child has received an English-skills test score appropriate to the child’s grade level.
A child may stay in the program longer than 3 years if the school committee and the
parent or guardian approve. Parents must be informed of their child’s enrollment in
the program and have the right to withdraw their child from the program.
The proposed law’s testing requirements would take effect immediately, and
its other requirements would govern all school years beginning after the proposed
law’s effect date. The proposed law states that if any of its parts were declared
invalid, the other parts would stay in effect.
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