Official says federal aid keeps ESL classes afloat
Web Posted: 09/11/2004 12:00 AM CDT
W. Gardner Selby
Express-News Austin Bureau

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AUSTIN  Answering a judge's question  and over the state's objection  a Texas Education Agency administrator said Friday that without federal aid, Texas would need to triple the supplement it provides to help schools educate more than half a million children not fluent in English.

That change, if required of lawmakers, would raise the amount of money sent to districts for each such student by $580, amounting to more than $12,000 in new aid per bilingual classroom at an annual cost of more than $300 million.

Bexar County districts serve more than 20,000 students in bilingual/English as a Second Language classes.

Georgina Gonzalez, director of TEA's bilingual unit, told state District Judge John Dietz that with federal aid, districts now have "enough" for adequate bilingual/English as a Second Language programs.

After Dietz asked her to disregard federal aid, Gonzalez said, "We need to increase" the allotment "for the bilingual education program."

And at his questioning, Gonzalez said the allotment should be 30 percent of what the state sends districts for regular education, three times the 10 percent supplement in place for bilingual education since 1984.

Statewide in 2002-03, schools spent nearly $700 million on bilingual classes on top of expenditures on regular classroom instruction. Precisely how much federal money went to bilingual education is uncertain, but schools spent $3 billion in total federal aid that year, including $60 million designated only for bilingual programs.

With the trial through its fourth week, Dietz has been presiding over a lawsuit by school districts that accuses the state of underfunding public education.

Testimony is expected to end next week, with Dietz poised to issue an ruling afterward, clearing the way for appeals that probably will reach the Texas Supreme Court next year.

Low-wealth districts including San Antonio's Edgewood, Harlandale and South San Antonio districts say the state has not achieved funding equity for facilities or for teaching economically disadvantaged students and those not fluent in English.

As soon as Gonzalez made her comments on funding, a state lawyer asked Dietz to disregard them because, he said, she lacks fiscal expertise. Dietz overruled the objection.

Gonzalez had been called to testify as part of the state making its case that current school funding is sufficient.

But Jeff Rose, the state's chief of civil litigation, said outside court that Gonzalez, whose testimony focused on how the agency helps schools improve bilingual instruction, "doesn't know anything about funding."

Rose said he still didn't find Gonzalez's opinion "damaging" to the state's position that Texas delivers enough aid to schools without court intervention.

"It is what it is," Rose said. "Any time you ask an educator, 'Do you need more money?'  I mean, the answer is going to be, 'It'd be great to have more money.'"

Lawyer David Hinojosa of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, representing low-wealth districts, said Gonzalez's testimony shows Texas depends on federal aid to educate non-English speakers.

Gonzalez's opinion seemed to support the push by property-poor districts for more funding, though her suggested supplement fell shy of the quadrupling of such funding sought by the districts.

"She's right," said Maria Robledo Montecel, executive director of the San Antonio-based Intercultural Research and Development Association, which advocates higher bilingual aid.

Montecel supervised research in the mid-1970s that concluded the Texas supplement for bilingual education needed to be 25 percent to 41 percent of funding sent to districts to educate all students. If delivered, she said, the added funds likely would go toward recruiting more certified teachers.