Language bills would help break down barriers

OLYMPIA — A bipartisan bill to create a grant for a dual-language program for K-12 students and train and recruit bilingual teachers was heard in Senate Committee on Early Learning and K-12 Education on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 5529 is sponsored by a member of the education committee, Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island.

The bills would create a $200,000-per-school grant administered by the Office of Public Instruction which would be used to start a two-way language program in early childhood education programs and elementary schools. The second part of the bill would award 10 two-year grants of up to $100,000 to recruit bilingual members of the community to become teachers. The last part of the bill would award an additional 10 two-year grants of up to $100,000 to ECEAP preschools interested in transitioning to a dual-language program.

In 2015, Bethel, Bellevue and Wenatchee school districts were awarded grants ranging from $50,000 to $20,000 to begin dual-language education programs.

Cynthia Valdez, an assistant Director of Special programs at Wenatchee Public Schools, said the program, implemented at Lewis and Clark Elementary, is an effective way of breaking down cultural barriers.

“It has elevated the status of one of our minority languages,” Valdez said. “It’s now seen as a positive.”

Valdez said the program’s success hinges on community involvement and administrative support. In addition to the in class work, native English speakers learn Spanish and native Spanish speakers learn English, the school hosts three dual-language family nights a year. The family nights are an opportunity for children and parents to participate in games and activities played in both languages.

Sally Gundry, executive director for Family Services of Grant County, said the Family Services ECEAP preschool in Moses Lake already works to support students who are learning English as a second language, but believes a two-way language program would benefit all students in the long run.

Gundry said the preschool has 122 English speaking students and 52 Spanish-speaking students and an average of one bilingual teacher in every classroom.

“We work a lot with children who are learning English and we could expand our work with English speaking children to learn another language,” Gundry said. “As children move up in elementary school, learning language at that early age benefits them for life.”

Gundry said there was a huge need for bilingual teachers and finding and recruiting teachers with language skills and an early childhood certification is extremely difficult.

Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, another member of the committee, did not cosponsor the bill, but said she intends to support it when it goes into executive session early this week.

“The thought has been if we try to keep children between two languages, it might be confusing for them,” Warnick said. “But children are more resilient then we think they are and I think they’ll turn out just fine if we can continue that. I might take some heat for this, but I do support that. I think it’s a good idea.”

The bipartisan companion, HB 1445 in the house, sponsored by Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, and cosponsored by Rep. Cary Condotta, R-Wenatchee, was voted out of its first committee last week.

The bill has not come up for a vote in the Senate Committee on Early Learning and K-12 Education yet, but passed through the House Education committee with 16 yes votes and three no votes. Rep. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane, Rep. Mark Hargrove, R-Covington and Rep. Mike Volz, R-Spokane voted against the bill.

Rep. Hargrove said he could not support the bill because he felt it was a distraction from more important issues in education, such as the student-to-teacher ratio in public schools.

“I think we lose focus on what’s important in education and we’re spending too much time detouring,” Hargrove said.

Hargrove also said he thinks this program will push students to preserve their culture and education instead of fully embracing American culture. He believes through immersion, students can often learn English easily. He used his brother’s children, who lived in Turkey for several years and are fluent in Turkish, as an example of how young children can adapt to their location.

He said he might support the bill later on in the process, but at the committee stage was still not confident the legislation was necessary.