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ProEnglish
Denounces Dallas Bilingual Principal Rule;
ARLINGTON, VA - The nation's leading legal advocates for English blasted the trustees of the Dallas Independent School District who have indicated they intend to vote tonight in favor of a proposal that would require public school principals to become bilingual if a majority of their students speak a language other than English. "The trustees who support this rule have their priorities upside down," said K.C. McAlpin, the executive director of ProEnglish, a national organization that advocates for making English the official language. "If the Dallas schools are failing in their responsibility to teach school children to speak English because they continue putting them in bilingual classrooms, the school board should address that failure rather than accommodate it by forcing school administrators to learn the students' language," McAlpin said. McAlpin noted that Census data shows that immigrants who speak English well earn over twice as much on average as those who don't. "Instead of catering to the language needs of recent immigrants, we should stress their responsibility to learn the language of their adopted country," he said. McAlpin said the message the school board was sending by making it mandatory was dangerous. "Americans don't want to live in a society divided by language. In a pluralistic society all levels of government have a duty to encourage those things that unite us, not divide us as a nation," he added. This proposal is further evidence that politics, not the welfare of immigrant school children, is the governing principle in American education today," said McAlpin. "It used to be that when school children had trouble learning English, teachers and school administrators redoubled their efforts to teach them our language. Today, we just throw in the towel," he added. McAlpin said if the school district approved the rule, ProEnglish would consider backing a legal challenge. Other Press releases |
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