Don't make me PUKE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - U.S. Newswire
-- A Florida Senator has introduced legislation that would change the language spoken in classrooms of nearly 600,000 students. Under Florida Senate Bill S. 522, introduced by Sen. Les Miller, all Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would receive mandatory Spanish instruction beginning in 2007. Despite a serious lack of teachers and an even more serious lack of funding, Florida schools would be required to carry out the bilingual mandate, even for immigrant students from non-Spanish speaking nations.
"The goal of educators in the United States should be to ensure that students are proficient the language that will be the most important for their success - English," said Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of U.S. English, Inc. "Through foreign language instruction is laudable, requiring the teaching a specific foreign language is an affront to the many different languages represented by these children."
According to the Florida Department of Education, nearly one- sixth of the state's K-2 students were classified as limited English proficient in 2003-04. The department's website further indicates that Florida's LEP students speak a combined total of 220 languages, with Haitian Creole/French Creole, Portuguese, French, Vietnamese and Arabic following Spanish as the most common foreign tongues.
"It is unfortunate that some of our legislators need to be reminded that we are an English speaking nation," continued Mujica. "If we are concerned with giving our children the ability to interact with the world, we should give them the opportunity to learn the languages of the world. The recent move toward requiring Spanish seems to be less about global relations and more about a nod to the misguided notion that we are an officially bilingual nation."
With a cost estimated in the tens of millions of dollars, the proposal has already drawn ire for its hefty price tag. "Elected officials need to make sure that they are getting the most from severely strained education budgets," Mujica added. "Trying to address the nation's growing number of non-English speakers by teaching K-2 students Spanish is like trying to put out a grease fire with water. It is an ill-advised, knee-jerk response that only leads to further trouble down the line."
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U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non- partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc.( http://www.usenglish.org ) now has more than 1.8 million members nationwide.
In America, MY COUNTRY, We speak ENGLISH. If you don't like it, GO HOME!!!
-- A Florida Senator has introduced legislation that would change the language spoken in classrooms of nearly 600,000 students. Under Florida Senate Bill S. 522, introduced by Sen. Les Miller, all Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would receive mandatory Spanish instruction beginning in 2007. Despite a serious lack of teachers and an even more serious lack of funding, Florida schools would be required to carry out the bilingual mandate, even for immigrant students from non-Spanish speaking nations.
"The goal of educators in the United States should be to ensure that students are proficient the language that will be the most important for their success - English," said Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of U.S. English, Inc. "Through foreign language instruction is laudable, requiring the teaching a specific foreign language is an affront to the many different languages represented by these children."
According to the Florida Department of Education, nearly one- sixth of the state's K-2 students were classified as limited English proficient in 2003-04. The department's website further indicates that Florida's LEP students speak a combined total of 220 languages, with Haitian Creole/French Creole, Portuguese, French, Vietnamese and Arabic following Spanish as the most common foreign tongues.
"It is unfortunate that some of our legislators need to be reminded that we are an English speaking nation," continued Mujica. "If we are concerned with giving our children the ability to interact with the world, we should give them the opportunity to learn the languages of the world. The recent move toward requiring Spanish seems to be less about global relations and more about a nod to the misguided notion that we are an officially bilingual nation."
With a cost estimated in the tens of millions of dollars, the proposal has already drawn ire for its hefty price tag. "Elected officials need to make sure that they are getting the most from severely strained education budgets," Mujica added. "Trying to address the nation's growing number of non-English speakers by teaching K-2 students Spanish is like trying to put out a grease fire with water. It is an ill-advised, knee-jerk response that only leads to further trouble down the line."
------
U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non- partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc.( http://www.usenglish.org ) now has more than 1.8 million members nationwide.
In America, MY COUNTRY, We speak ENGLISH. If you don't like it, GO HOME!!!
posted by Logan VanLandingham at 3:55 PM
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