The possibility of the elimination of West Linn-Wilsonville School District's year-old Spanish immersion program for primary school students due to ongoing budget cuts offered mixed reaction from the members of the community.
After long testimonies, at 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the school board voted 3-2 against suspending the program.
"Virtually no one disputes the practical benefits of dual language immersion education, but paying for it in an economy that continues to gouge away at existing programs is proving to be a tougher sell for most District officials."
"This program is critical to our entire community," said Wilsonville resident Jay Puppo, whose son, Carson, is enrolled in the program at Boones Ferry Primary School.
Budget cuts will also include lying off at least 30 classroom teachers, five special education teachers and eliminate an undetermined number of classified staff positions prior to the start of the 2010-11 school year.
Personally, I feel that Spanish immersion classes should be voluntary, not a requirement. And just like any other type of extracurricular program, it could be paid for by the students or parents themselves.
English immersion classes should be a requirement for non-English speaking students as it would better prepare students to thrive in this society a lot more than requiring English speaking students to be forced to learn Spanish.
The truth is as much as some don't like it, ENGLISH is still the PRIMARY language of this country and a lot of people including myself feel that if you are to move to another country, then it is your responsibility and duty to learn their language.
a number of people feel this way and that's backed up by the large percentages of people in favor of Arizona's SB 1070...
You come to our country learn the damn language, plus it's required by law to be a citizen!
5 comments:
English-speaking children are not FORCED to learn Spanish, as parents choose to place them in bilingual programs.
That is not true in some school districts.
Ashland Oregon for example, "ALL first grade students in Ashland school District will begin learning Spanish next school year and continue with lessons each year through 12th gradea grade will be added to the program each year, until all students are receiving second-language instructions."
The Oregonian
And for the record... I have no problem with anybody learning a second language if they so choose to, I do have a problem with...
1) being a new requirement for me to retain my job.
2) being told what second-language I must learn.
I think that the only positive to come out of this economic mess is to shine a bit of light on all the waste of money in some of these government programs. Also increased unemployment has forced others to acknowledge that we can't afford unlimited invasion. Too bad it had to come to this to wake people up.
Here in Eugene, the Spanish Immersion program is voluntary -- in fact it's very difficult to gewt into. I know, my son starts K at Buena Vista this fall. I am all for the program, since studies show that kids exposed to two languages fully before a certain age excell at BOTH.
The problem here in Oregon isn't programs like Spanish Immersion, the problem is twofold: The amount of the education budget that goes into PERS and into non-teaching staff positions, and the fact that the education budget is used as an excuse to ram taxes down our throat that go to anyhting BUT improving our kids' educations.
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