Sunday, November 1, 2009


$1.3M in grants to help immigrants learn English











WORCESTER — State officials are slated to announce $1.3 million in grants aimed at helping the state’s immigrants learn English.

State Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne M. Bump and state Secretary of Education S. Paul Reville are scheduled to give details of the grants to support workplace-based English proficiency and adult basic education classes offered by business-labor-community partnerships. The announcement will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in the faculty conference room of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

The new grants partly restore the state’s 10 percent cut in June in Adult Basic Education programs.

Immigrant advocates say about 17,000 Massachusetts immigrants are on the waiting lists for state-funded English classes.

The grants come after a coalition of business, labor and civic leaders in New Bedford launched a campaign in August to improve immigrants’ English proficiency by supporting reforms and investment in English programs.



http://www.telegram.com/article/2009110 ... source=rss