State legislators are getting a lot of credit for their unanimous passage of SB 1014, which removes the state mandated four hour English Immersion blocks for ELL students. They deserve the credit, as does Governor Ducey for signing the bill.
But I have a question. What took them so long? The English Immersion block was just as bad when it began 12 years ago as it is today.
The history of the English Immersion rule makes more sense when it is put in context. On its face it’s all about how ELL students are taught, but it’s more than that. It’s part of Arizona’s recent history of legislative efforts to punish not only immigrants specifically, but Latinos and Latino culture in general. And that includes demonizing the Spanish language.
Arizona’s English Only law, passed by voters in 2000, and the resulting English Immersion ruling were followed by the “Show me your papers” law, and that was followed by a law designed to outlaw TUSD’s Mexican American Studies program. The “Show me your papers” and anti-MAS laws were struck down by the courts in whole or in part. English Immersion survived its court challenges but was finally dragged down by the weight of its own failure.
Here’s the timeline.
2000: The voters pass Prop. 203, a law mandating English Only education for ELL students. However, the language in the proposition is open to interpretation, and most schools are less than rigorous about following the English Only ruling.
2006: HB 2064 tightens up the language in Prop. 203 and creates a panel to decide how ELL students should be taught.
2007: Tom Horne, Education Superintendent, lays out the details of the mandatory four hour English Immersion block.2010: SB 1070, the “Show me your papers” law, passes. It’s the most rigorous anti-immigrant law in the country.
201o-2017: Court challenges to SB 1070 begin immediately. By 2017, much of the law had been struck down.
2010: HB 2281, whose purpose is to make TUSD’s Mexican American Studies curriculum illegal, passes.
2011: John Huppenthal, Education Superintendent, rules that the Mexican American Studies program violates HB 2281 and needs to be eliminated or TUSD will face significant fines. In 2012, the TUSD board votes to dismantle the program.
2017: Judge Wallace Tashima rules that HB 2281 is unconstitutional because it was created out of racial animus and is in violation of the First Amendment.
2019: SB 1014 removes the four hour English Immersion mandate from ELL instruction.
One day after Ducey signed SB 1014, President Trump declared a national emergency so he can “Build a Wall!” Ducey said, “I’m with Trump.”
Arizona’s history of anti-Latino legislation tells the story of Republican politicians pandering to the fear felt by a large part of the Anglo community toward immigrants and Latinos in general.
Though the unanimous repudiation of the English Immersion mandate may look like the Republican majority in the legislature is coming to its senses, that they may let up on the demonization of all things Latino, the mandate from the Panderer-in-Chief to “Build the Wall!” guarantees that the party will continue to generate fear and hatred toward people crossing the U.S./Mexico border and toward Latinos already in the country.
Arizona has been at the cutting edge of the country’s anti-brown, anti-Spanish crusade. Our governor’s full throated endorsement of Trump’s emergency declaration is all the evidence we need to realize that nothing has changed.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2019.
Racist actions would be to deny or greatly reduce LEGAL immigration to the US. Who has called for that? How can a discussion be had when one conflates every detail?
It’s doubtful that anyone in the legislature or in the Department of Education knew the nature of what was happening in English Language Immersion program.
When it was initiated, Arizona’s rate of reclassifying kids from ELL status to regular education leaped to the highest in the nation: 30%. No other state in the nation was above 6%.
And, they had to test out, it wasn’t an arbitrary removal.
No one had the foresight to model that reclassification rate into the future to determine how that would shape events.
Which students would be left behind? What effects would it have on them. How would traditional education culture react to this as it spiraled forward? How do you philosophically reconcile the fact that a large percentage of white kids can’t pass the test required of an Hispanic student to enter regular classes?
Quickly we moved from 150,000 ELL students to less than 70,000. It was an incredibly successful program which then was undone by its own success and the failure to realize that knowledge of English is a much better predictor for college and job success than a high school diploma. (I know that just saying such simple facts is now considered racist- but its not. If you care about minority students you teach them to be articulate in the language of the land. You make Congressman if you are articulate)
The desire to keep the diploma assembly line moving put pressure on the system to have these students sit in classes where they were not likely to be successful but moved forward anyway.
Why do other states not show the same academic advancement of these students? Because they get more money for an ELL student. Why work harder if you are going to get punished by getting less money?
All your racist rhetoric is pointed in the wrong direction.
Go look in the mirror.
I was never a supporter of the ELL block because it usurped local control. But, I did enough research on it to understand how well it was working.
You all are just doing our zombie horde thing.
I can remember when students who did not know English were tested in English and then labelled retarded. I can also recall that when teaching speakers of Spanish (and other languages) to use English, or ESL, individual student ability determined his/her time for acquiring a second language, first conversationally and later academically. Imagine yourself being thrown into a new language and being expected to use it with recall and for analyzing new information.
In other words, one size does not fit all – if any.