|
|
|
Immigrant students and families to rally against ed cuts for English language learners
40 of the School District's 98 Bilingual Counseling Assistants to be laid off, immigrant families and students set to protest.
Immigrant students and families to rally against ed cuts for English language learners
Advocates will testify against cuts to services for immigrant students and their families at Friday’s School Reform Commission (SRC) meeting.
40 of the District’s 98 Bilingual Counseling Assistants (BCAs) are being laid off, according to Len Rieser, Executive Director of the Education Law Center. In addition, School District spokesperson Elizabeth Childs tells City Paper that the number of ESOL/Bilingual Teachers is being reduced from 337 to 301. The full extent of the cuts affecting immigrant students and families, however, is not yet clear.
The School District of Philadelphia has a $629 million budget gap, thanks in part to a $270 million budget cut from the state (down from $292 million, thanks to friendly legislators). Republican Governor Tom Corbett's harshly austere budget cuts $900 million in education funding state-wide.
The BCA positions were created thanks to a court order resulting from a lawsuit filed in 1985 called YS v School District of Philadelphia, which forced the District to provide adequate translation services to students and families. Cuts to translations and intepretaton services risk breaking the law.
Rieser says that the District will be hiring 30 “Bilingual School Improvement Liaisons,” though neither he nor any other advocates contacted know what that means.
“The question,” says Rieser, “is now that this year’s set of staffing arrangements is getting drastically changed: will they be able to provide the services that families need and that are required? I don’t think they even know the answer to that right now.”
Two people in the Multilingual Family Support Office, including Director Ludy Soderman, will be laid off. Parents and activists are circulating a petition calling for her to be reinstated.
“It’s a shortsighted move on the School District’s part,” says Helen Gym, long-time activist and a founder of Parents United. “The District has been completely opaque about what it was planning to do.”
Zac Steele of the Latino advocacy group Juntos notes that non-English speakers are at a high risk of dropping out. And they are the future of this city.
“Philadelphia only gained population because of immigration,” says Steele. “We’re cutting the services for a large segment of the population.”
The SRC meets Friday June 30, 11 AM at the School District’s 400 N. Broad headquarters.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
