TEA gets no help in suit from lawmakers

Lawyers for the Texas Education Agency will step before the federal appeals court in New Orleans today armed with arguments against a ruling that says the state is failing 140,000 students with limited English-speaking skills.

They will not, however, have an armload of bills passed by the 81st Legislature to show that the state is addressing the problems that were highlighted by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice in July.

None of the bills filed this session that target the problems survived the process. Those bills included efforts to improve English-as-a-second-language programs for middle school and high school students and to institute better state monitoring of school districts' bilingual programs.

Legislators and advocates alike say it was a missed opportunity.

"I'll have to chalk that up to a lack of political will in the body as a whole," said Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, chairman of the House Public Education Committee.

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said bilingual education issues often get caught in the politically charged issue of immigration policy.

While the state cannot affect immigration policy, it can affect education policy, Van de Putte said.

"These children are here," Van de Putte said. "Let's look at the programs we need to make them successful."

Last summer, in an unexpected twist to a decades-old case, Justice reversed himself and found that the state had not complied with the federal Equal Educational Opportunities Act.

Justice ruled that Texas elementary students in dual-language programs were being adequately served but that the state was dropping the ball on helping older students get a handle on English.

"The failure of secondary (limited English proficiency) students under every metric clearly and convincingly demonstrates student failure, and accordingly, the failure of the (English as a second language) secondary program in Texas," Justice wrote in his opinion.

He called for a plan, due January 2009, to rectify the problems. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the state a reprieve from that order awaiting today's arguments. A ruling is not expected for several months.

At the time, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency was quoted as saying that the delay gave the Legislature a chance to address the issues before being forced to do so.

But the Legislature has not done so.

"Most people think the state has a good chance of winning (the case), and that may have taken away some of the impetus of getting some legislation passed in a hurry," Eissler said.  more...