Tucson-area district to defy state law on English immersion
May 24th, 2008 @ 11:36am
by Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) _ A Tucson-area school district plans to defy a state law requiring all students learning English to have four-hour daily language immersion classes, saying federal civil rights rules take precedence.

The decision by the Sahuarita Unified School District to exclude its middle and high school students drew an immediate response from Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who said he was ``shocked'' and disturbed the district planned to ignore the 2006 state law.

``Any administrator who participates in open defiance of a state law would be subject to a complaint against his or her certificate for unprofessional conduct,'' Horne warned Friday.

Sahuarita's move comes just months before Arizona school districts are required to implement the 2006 state mandate requiring four-hour instruction blocks for students learning English.

Sahuarita district officials said they face a question that every public school in Arizona must answer: Will English-language learners get an equal education if they're forced to spend four hours a day in a language class?

Barbara Smith, Sahuarita's director of student services, said she consulted with federal officials in the Office for Civil Rights on whether to implement the program. Federal officials in Denver sought advice from peers in Washington, D.C. Their conclusion, Smith said, is not to follow the state requirement.

``It is discriminatory, especially at high schools, where you prevent students from taking the same number of classes, preventing them from graduating in four years,'' Smith said.

Horne questioned the validity of the federal advice.

``I doubt very strongly that anyone with any authority came to such an idiotic conclusion,'' he said. ``I doubt this is a final decision from the Office for Civil Rights.''

The district's English language learning program has been under federal oversight since an employee complained in 2002 that it wasn't providing adequate teaching materials, Smith said.

The two layers of oversight put Sahuarita between a rock and a hard place, Assistant Superintendent Manuel Valenzuela said.

``The feds are telling us it's illegal, it's discriminatory. The state is saying do it,'' he said. ``We made the most logical and sound decision we could make based on all the facts.''

The 2006 state plan was devised by the Legislature in an effort to resolve a years-long court battle on the adequacy of the education provided to students who don't know English.

It required districts to adopt models devised by the state, including the four-hour immersion classes. The law provides extra money but lawyers in the original lawsuit contend it is grossly inadequate.

School administrators have told the state the classes will cost more than $270 million statewide, but Horne said it should cost less than $20 million, provided school districts use federal funds to comply with the mandate. However, that idea has been rejected by a federal trial judge and an appellate court.

The Legislature earlier this year appropriated $40.6 million to implement the plan.

However, the amount given to individual districts varies widely under the state plan.

Sahuarita stands to gain about $90,000 under the current state formula, while Tucson Unified won't receive any money to teach its 8,000 English learners.




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