All Florida students in kindergarten through second grade to get mandatory Spanish lessons
Kevin Begos:
All Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would get mandatory Spanish lessons starting in 2007 under a new bill filed by state Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa.
"More and more of our young people need to learn a second language," said Miller, the Senate minority leader. "We just thought that this was a good start for these young people."
Some people like the idea but wonder about its practicality.
Younger students "learn a foreign language without pain," said Dorothy Carregal, superintendent of foreign languages for Hillsborough schools.
But the legislation, Senate Bill 522, doesn't say how schools would pay for the classes, other than to allow using state and private funds and grants.
If Miller's legislation becomes a mandate for schools, Carregal said it would create funding and personnel problems.
"And even if they give us the money, finding the teachers would be very difficult," she said.
In 1999, the Hillsborough County School Board found that 82 percent of parents were interested in elementary students learning conversational Spanish in class. But the board also found that twice-weekly classes for students in kindergarten through fifth grade could cost as much as $4.3 million in the first year.
A lack of funding helped kill the idea of offering the instruction systemwide, but Carregal said Hillsborough has five full-time certified Spanish teachers teaching kindergarten through fifth grade, at four schools.
Miller said he has not talked to other politicians or educators, but "if we have to negotiate some things, we will."
He is seeking the 11th U.S. congressional seat vacated by Rep. Jim Davis, a Tampa Democrat who is running for governor.
Maria Coady, an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Florida, said even though the state has a great resource of Spanish-speaking people, not enough have been encouraged to go into teaching.
The Florida Department of Education hasn't seen the bill or reviewed funding issues, a representative said.
Mandatory Spanish
posted by Adam Lawson @ 12:48 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Learning a second language at a young age is a good thing. I am not sure that requiring it to be Spanish is so good. Children in the Netherlands are forced to learn English at a young age and you don't hear bitching and moaning about cultural imperialism.
The difference: in the US such proposals are connected to demography-changing mass immigration, a lot of it illegal. I don't think the Netherlands is afflicted with an influx of largely unwanted, and definitely uninvited (i.e. illegal) English speakers, so many that in place after place they are changing the demography of the country. Which is exactly what IS happening in America. And to top it off, Americans are then asked by their politicians to bend over so they can have this invasion of third world Spanish speakers rammed further up their national ass.
Florida Constitution, Article II SECTION 9. English is the official language of Florida.--
(a) English is the official language of the State of Florida.
(b) The legislature shall have the power to enforce this section by appropriate legislation.
The question is how do We the People enforce this provision against the legislature?
Why can't we have mandatory English lessons for Spanish speakers? This bill is not about communication, it is about attacking native Americans. Well, guess what? The natives are restless, and we are almost to the end of our patience.
Learning a second language at a young age is a good thing.
True enough, but the only choice shouldn't be Spanish. There are a whole lot of languages in the world that are more important than Spanish.
Why can't we have mandatory English lessons for Spanish speakers?
Unfortunately, such lessons would probably be denounced as "racist" by the ACLU and the media.
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