Newport-Mesa Unified School District is expected to drop English as a second language classes and slash adult education offerings under a package of proposed budgetary cuts.
According to Tom Ragan in the Daily Pilot, doing away with ESL classes and the bulk of adult education programs would be felt most keenly by the people living in the district’s Costa Mesa side, where these programs are concentrated and where many Latinos live. Hundreds of Spanish-speaking parents take the ESL classes so they can lead by example and talk to their children in English.
Kimberly Claytor, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, said that the elimination of the ESL classes could prove detrimental to student achievement because the parents often are “the first line of help.”
“If the parents don’t learn English, then it can have effects on the household,” Claytor said. “The parents are so often the starting point when it comes to educating the children.”
The school district, however, has no choice but to make the cuts, according to administration officials.
As has happened to most school districts throughout California, Newport-Mesa has seen its state funding slashed. The state has stripped the district of $13.5 million, administrators said, forcing them to cut programs and lay off 80 teachers.
— Jill-Marie Jones