Dallas School Board to Revisit Policy Requiring Bilingual Principals

A year after adopting requirements that school principals learn Spanish or risk losing their jobs, the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) Board of Trustees plans to reconsider the policy at a meeting this week. The plan, narrowly adopted by a 5-4 vote in August 2005, was roundly criticized for asking English-speaking employees to cater to non-English speaking immigrants, instead of focusing on assimilation and English learning.

“I am pleased to see that common sense may be gaining the upper hand within the Dallas schools,” said Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of U.S. English, Inc. “Forcing school administrators to learn the language of immigrants is a damaging policy for the entire district. If we are serious about helping limited English proficient children, we need to allow principals to focus on educating and put immigrant parents on the road to learning English.”

According to sources, DISD Board Trustee Carla Ranger will introduce language to declare: “It shall be the policy of the Dallas Independent School District that no principal shall be required to speak or write any language other than Standard English as a condition of employment, promotion, or retention.” The matter is expected to be considered next week and voted on before the end of the month in the nation’s 12th largest school district.

The principal policy is not the only troubling language-related news out of Dallas this school year. DISD Board Trustee Ron Price raised grave concerns about the district’s bilingual education program, which enrolls more than 15,000 Spanish speaking students. According to Price, several of the teachers in the program do not speak any English at all.

“Educating non-English speaking children is difficult, but the policy goal is simple: help them become English proficient as quickly as possible,” continued Mujica. “The past actions of the Dallas Independent School Board indicate that the members have lost sight of this goal. I look forward to seeing the bilingual principal regulation overturned and returning the District’s focus back to the English language.”

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.