Overhauling
Bilingual Education New York City is the gateway
for thousands of immigrants each year, and immigration has long been
a source of our city's greatest strength. Immigrants come here with
a dream of freedom and success, but their best chance of being successful
in this country is by becoming as proficient as possible in English.
Education is the ladder of success for immigrants, it is the fast-track
to the American dream. It is essential that we do
everything possible to give the children of immigrants every chance
to succeed. Last week, the Board of Education took a step in the right
direction by adopting reforms that create an English immersion program
and empower parents to choose between traditional bilingual instruction
and English immersion. The sad reality is that more
than half our non-English-speaking students do not learn enough English
in three years of bilingual education to move into mainstream classes.
City schools have historically offered two bilingual models: a traditional
program where students are taught in the language they speak, and a
limited immersion program where students receive up to three hours of
English instruction each day. The Board of Education reports
that English immersion works best for young students. According to their
data, 84% of those enrolled in kindergarten exit within three years.
In contrast, traditional bilingual programs have a far lower success
rate. Therefore, if parents of
non-English-speaking children want them to enter mainstream classes
as quickly as possible, they should choose English immersion. But until
now, they have not had that choice. Instead, such children were automatically
enrolled in bilingual programs, from which parents had to take affirmative
steps to remove them. Even more incredible was the absence in our system
of a true English immersion model where students learn to speak English
as quickly as possible.
The new plan is largely based
on a report by the Mayor's Task Force on Bilingual Education, of which
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy was a member. The Board of Education has
adopted the following reforms: I want to thank Randy Mastro, who
chaired the Task Force, Corporation Counsel Michael Hess, and all the
members of the Task Force for their hard work. I would also like to advise
our city's immigrants that the Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act
(the LIFE Act) - a change in federal immigration law that went into
effect December 2000 - is not a general amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The LIFE Act temporarily
restores a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, known as
Section 245(i) until April 30, 2001. It allows immigrants who are unlawfully
present in the U.S., but would otherwise qualify for an immigrant visa,
to adjust their status without leaving the US In order to become a Legal
Permanent Resident (green card holder), immigrants need to be sponsored
by either an immediate family member who is a Legal Permanent Resident
or a US citizen, or an employer. Immigrants should be aware that many
people who call themselves immigration consultants are taking advantage
of the confusion. Immigration practitioners making promises of green
cards to immigrants who have no immediate family or employment sponsorship
are violating the law. The City publishes a brochure,
Beware of Immigration Services Fraud, designed to help immigrants
be aware of the deceptive practices of dishonest immigration practitioners
and to inform the public about qualified legal service providers. To
obtain this brochure, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, 42 Broadway, New York,
N.Y. 10004 (Attn: Beware of Immigration Services Fraud). The brochure
is also available on DCA's website at www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/dcapubl.html.
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