Q&A: California’s multilingual future rests on its students. The policies are in place to achieve it, says UnidosUS’s Senior State Policy Strategist
While some states are struggling to keep the momentum going for multicultural and multilingual education, UnidosUS California Senior State Policy Strategist Steve Siañez is happy to report that while the Golden State is going through some challenges, it is well-positioned to overcome the current hardline immigration executive orders impacting English Learner (EL) students. ProgressReport.co sat down with him to learn what those latest developments are.
Q: What would you say are the greatest education policy (or related) achievements you’ve had in California recently?
A: For some time now, UnidosUS has partnered with education advocacy coalitions such as Californians Together, EdTrust-West and the Local Control Funding Formula Equity Council to push for robust education policy that builds upon prior policies that have bolstered multilingual education. The most recent and significant win for multilingual education was the passage of AB 2074, which funds the implementation of California Department of Education’s (CDE) English Learner Roadmap, a guide to equitable education for ELs that includes standards, instruction, access, assessment and accountability.
In 2016, voters passed Proposition 58, which basically put an end to a long, English-only era that Californians had endured since 1998 with the passing of Proposition 227. Under that law, schools would support ELs in learning English, but only in English. ELs’ lack of English was viewed as a liability rather than an asset. We then began to see a paradigm shift of how we viewed multilingualism’s power. By 2017, the California State Board of Education voted unanimously in favor of adopting the CDE’s EL Roadmap Policy.
Q: So for nearly two decades, a state as diverse as California couldn’t fully recognize or honor the incredible potential of multilingualism. What led to the policy changes that ultimately allowed the English Learner Roadmap to run its full course?
A: Today, 56% of students in California’s public school system are Latino, and while not all of them are ELs, there are about 1.1 million ELs in our state. In fact, students enrolled in California’s public schools speak more than 65 languages. Voters started to recognize the richness of cultural and linguistic diversity, along with the potential that it has on the state’s economy. If California were a country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world.
One thing that propelled this shift was the passing of Global California 2030, a 2019 initiative from the CDE’s Communications and English Learners Support Divisions aimed at preparing students for the global economy. The goal is to ensure that half of all K–12 students participate in a class, program or experience that leads them to proficiency in two or more languages. And by 2040, it aims to make three out of four students proficient enough in two or more languages so that they can earn a State Seal of Biliteracy on their diplomas.
In last year’s legislative session, we got another win for ELs with the passage of AB 2074, the legislation that implements the statewide English Learner Roadmap Policy, but because of budget cuts, legislators made some amendments to the bill and cut 3 full-time positions. This year, the state is not dealing with a major budget deficit, so we might be able to fund at least one of those three staff positions to help fully implement and coordinate AB 2074. It shows we’re on the right path and that we’re building upon this idea of making bilingual education the standard, which is beneficial to Latino families whose home language is not English.
Q: How do you see this playing out under the current political circumstances at the national level, with federal cuts to education and a climate of intolerance for diversity?
A: Many Californians, especially legislators, are doubling down. They pride themselves in that resistance. There may be pockets of people here and there who disagree, but California is in the same position as it was in 2016. In fact, legislators held a special session to allocate $25 million for the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) and state agencies to defend against unconstitutional or unlawful federal government actions and reduce potential harm.
In addition, during this ongoing legislative session, there are a series of immigrant student rights bills aimed at upholding the integrity of the California Constitution in making schools a place where students and their families feel safe. One of these days, all these diverse students are going to have jobs, including state leadership roles, so preparing and embracing them now paves the way.
Q: Some of that funding goes to address multilingual teacher shortages. How is there a shortage in a state where there are so many people who speak more than one language?
A: Across the board, there is a teacher shortage because educators have to meet a lot of demands for very little pay, and the cost of living has continued to go up. It has really discouraged a lot of students from going into the profession. Even teachers discourage their own children from becoming teachers because not only is it underpaid, it’s not a profession that rarely gets the recognition it deserves.
Q: Is there legislation to raise that pay now?
A: At the moment, no, but a 1988 law called Proposition 98 guarantees funding for our public schools. It might not be the same amount of money every single year, but it’s going to cover whatever expenditures were in the previous years.
Q: Are there any incentives to ensure Latinos who speak more than one language take jobs as bilingual teachers?
A: While 56% of the students in our state are Latinos, only 19% of their teachers are, in part because of the low pay and the cost of living. It’s a big discrepancy, but we do offer bilingual teacher residencies, such as the California Mini–Corps (CMC) program to teach migrant children. We need to keep funding those programs and making them stronger. Of course, UnidosUS wants to encourage Latinos to become multilingual teachers, but anyone can become multilingual. We all have that capacity. If I could wave a magic wand, I would make multilingual education the standard for all schools, for all students, so that every single student coming into the public education system in California could have the opportunity to not only learn at least two languages but to be literate in both languages. This would mean that as we continue to grow in our diversity, we would have a much larger pool of linguistically and culturally competent educators.
At the same time, we would be preparing our kids to be global competitors, ready to compete with the best in the world and that doesn’t just have to be Spanish and English. It could be any language, including Chinese, French or a Native American language. But it starts with making sure we focus on those early years. Here in California, we have transitional kindergarten. Starting at four, we can start developing those bilingual, biliterate or multilingual and multiliterate skills in our kids.
Q: You’ve got an UnidosUS advocacy day coming up on March 19 in Sacramento. Who’s going and what are the main items on the event’s agenda?
A: We’ll be bringing 25 representatives of our UnidosUS Affiliate Network here in California to advocate for our education policy priorities.
- Ensure adequate funding to implement the EL Roadmap Policy
- Recruit bilingual teachers
- Improve the accountability system for ELs
- Protect the rights of immigrant students and make schools safe.
Q: These are all promising signs, but these are also tough times. What makes you hopeful that California can stay the course in this contentious national climate?
A: I think California leaders don’t view themselves living on an island. They understand the importance of being connected with the rest of the country, and it’s in their interest to be connected with other states, especially because of our state’s economy. Trade and infrastructure in any state depends on working with other states and other countries, so I think there’s an interest in keeping those economic ties strong, especially with a state with an economy as big as California’s.
At the same time, I believe that emotions drive people to action. There are emotions like despair and fear that can drive you not to do anything, and then there are emotions like hope. In California, right now, people are going through the whole realm of them. I’m hopeful all these emotions will move people to do what’s right for California. They will continue to fight, just as they have always done, just like they did during the farmworker movement when things were really tough. But as farmworker activist Dolores Huerta said, “Si se puede,” yes we can. It shifted the narrative and brought hope to the struggle. It’s a belief that things can and will change if we firmly believe that change is possible.
–Author Julienne Gage is a former UnidosUS staff member and longtime contributor to the Progress Report blog. She is currently obtaining her PhD in Anthropology in Florida International University’s Global and Sociocultural Studies Department.
