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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to appear before the Committee today to testify on the fiscal year 2000 budget request for Bilingual and Immigrant Education.
Last year, the Department funded 679 instructional services projects, serving more than a million limited English proficient (LEP) students in 40 States, 4 territories, and the District of Columbia. The goal of each of these projects is to teach English to LEP students and assist them to achieve to the same high standards as all other students. Historically, the vast majority of these projects has successfully achieved that goal.
LEP students do not all come to our schools with the same needs. They come with different levels of proficiency in English and in their native language, at different ages, and with different levels of educational achievement. One instructional model will not address the needs of all children. The current Bilingual Education Act is well designed to provide the flexibility that school districts need to implement the instructional program that best meets the needs of their students.
In order for LEP students to learn English quickly and to achieve to high standards, they must be taught by well-trained teachers in programs that use specially designed English or native language instruction that supports language and content learning. These students must have access to a quality curriculum that is linked to State and national standards. Their progress in language and content learning must be periodically assessed and the results used to modify instruction. Finally, the overall instructional program must be evaluated on an ongoing basis to determine its effectiveness.
The fiscal year 2000 budget request of $415 million for Bilingual and Immigrant Education strongly supports our policy of helping school districts build their capacity to teach English to LEP students and to help these students achieve to the same high standards as all other students. The Bilingual Education Act is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which will expire at the end of fiscal year 1999. Although we have presented the 2000 budget request under current law, the Administration is working on a reauthorization proposal that we will submit to Congress in the near future.
The rapid growth in LEP students has made the shortage of bilingual and English as a second language teachers increasingly acute. The California State educational agency alone reports a shortage of more than 20,000 teachers. The Final Report on Limited English Proficient Students from the Title I Prospects study concludes that less than half of LEP students have regular teachers certified in either bilingual education or English as a second language. Because of the increasing dispersion of these students to communities that have little prior experience in serving them, all teacher training programs should now provide some instruction in how to serve LEP students.
Census data suggest that instructional programs for LEP students, including the programs we fund, are effective in teaching English. While the number of children who speak a language other than English at home grew by 1.8 million during the past decade, 71 percent of that increase was among those children who speak English very well. The data thus indicate that language minority students in 1990 were significantly more proficient in English than language minority students in 1980.
For Instructional Services, our request is $170 million, $10 million more than the 1999 appropriation. This increase would fund an estimated 125 more projects than in 1999. In 2000, the Department will emphasize two types of instructional services grants that often benefit school districts that have experienced a recent influx of LEP students and have little prior experience in serving these students. More than 70 percent of all limited English proficient students are Spanish speakers. By promoting the educational success of LEP students, bilingual programs supported under Instructional Services directly address the high dropout rate for Hispanic students.
For Support Services, our request is $14 million, the same as the 1999 amount. The request will provide funding needed to make 53 continuation grants to States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the territories to enable them to work with schools to improve the quality of instructional programs for LEP students. We are also requesting funds for the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education to make data available to practitioners on effective instructional services. We are requesting funds for studies and evaluations needed to chart progress towards the performance goals we have established for this program pursuant to Government Performance and Results Act. We request no funds for Academic Excellence grants since current grantees are being phased out in fiscal year 1999 and we expect to propose a major redesign of this activity as part of the reauthorization process.
As part of the Administration's Hispanic Education Initiative, the Department requests $75 million for Professional Development, $25 million more than the amount appropriated in 1999. This amount would fund an additional 118 preservice and inservice projects at colleges and universities and 135 more fellowship awards. Of these new grants, the Department expects to fund an additional 18 new awards under the Training for All Teachers program, which incorporates curricula on serving LEP students into professional development programs for future teachers who do not plan to become bilingual or English as a second language teachers. A 1992 evaluation of bilingual professional development projects found that our program is extremely effective in preparing teachers to teach LEP students; this study found that 77 percent of the participants in the program subsequently obtained employment teaching LEP students.
My colleagues and I will be happy to respond to any questions you have regarding the 2000 budget request for Bilingual and Immigrant Education.
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