Statement from Executive Director, Rosa Aronson, PhD, CAE
15 April 2013
TESOL International Association shares the President’s belief that education is an essential investment in the people, communities, and competitiveness of the United States. The association commends the President for continuing his strong commitment to education and is very pleased to see a requested increase in discretionary spending for education of more than 4% from the previous fiscal year.
Some of the new initiatives in the President’s proposed education budget hold great promise. Because teachers are the backbone of education, the proposals for the new Effective Teachers and Leaders State Grants and the new Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund under Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) could have a tremendous impact in terms of meaningful education reform. Too often, teachers are not fully incorporated into education reform efforts, especially those who work most closely with English language learners (ELLs). These programs could provide a real opportunity to address the critical shortage of trained English-as-a-second-language (ESL) and bilingual education specialists in the United States. As these programs become more fully developed, TESOL International Association strongly urges the Obama administration to ensure that the programs address the needs of ESL and bilingual education specialists and their students.
Following through on his commitment in this year’s State of the Union speech, the FY2014 budget request includes a bold new proposal to provide high quality preschool to every child in the United States. High quality early childhood education is often out of reach for the most disadvantaged student populations, which in many places throughout the United States includes ELLs. Statistics have shown that 70–80% of ELLs in U.S. schools are born in this country and thus would be directly served as part of the Preschool for All program. Because ELLs continue to be the fastest growing population among school-age students in the United States, the administration must directly address the needs of young ELLs in this and all other program that focus on early childhood education.
Although these new programs could have a significant impact on ELLs and their teachers, Title III of ESEA and Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) are still the most critical federal programs for English language teaching in the United States. In light of the impact of sequestration, TESOL International Association hoped that the proposed budget for FY2014 would have included more than level-funding for these programs. Both of these programs supplement state and local funds, which have seen significant cuts in recent years. When the Congress begins debates on appropriations for the U.S. Department of Education for FY2014, we hope they will consider increasing funds for both Title III of ESEA and Title II of WIA.
TESOL International Association and its members stand ready to work with the President and Congress to ensure that the current and newly proposed education programs support the needs of ELLs, their parents, and their teachers.