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Monday, May 4, 2011

Pierluisi Seeks Additional Federal Funding to Improve the Teaching of English in Puerto Rico’s Public Schools

WASHINGTON, DC- Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi today reintroduced legislation thatwould increase, from $3.5 million to $14 million, the amount of federal funding that Puerto Rico receives each year to provide English-language instruction in its public schools. The legislation is entitled the Strengthening the Teaching of English in Puerto Rico Act of 2011, or the STEP Act.

Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provides formula grants to jurisdictions to provide language instruction to students with limited English proficiency. Of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, only Puerto Rico is subject to a cap on the Title III funding it may receive, which is currently set at 0.5% of the total available for state distribution. As a result, Puerto Rico is eligible to receive only $3.5 million annually. The Resident Commissioner’s bill would raise the cap from 0.5% to 2%—quadrupling the amount of funding that Puerto Rico would be eligible to receive.

“Increasing Puerto Rico’s Title III cap to enable the Island to address the needs of its students with English-language deficiencies is a matter of basic fairness,” said Pierluisi.

Previous administrations in Puerto Rico were unable to access Title III funds because they did not submit adequate proposals to the U.S. Department of Education regarding how this funding would be used. In addition, these administrations alleged that Title III funds could be utilized only to improve Spanish-language instruction—as opposed to English-language instruction—on the Island. Upon being questioned by the Resident Commissioner, the U.S. Department of Education clarified in writing in early 2010 that this was not the case.

In August 2010, for the first time in several years, Puerto Rico applied for—and received—an allocation under Title III. While this funding is currently being used to address the needs of students with limited Spanish proficiency, the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) is designing a new plan to use the funds to address the needs of students with limited English proficiency. The increase in funding provided by the bill would jumpstart PRDE’s new English-language component of the program.

“It is beyond dispute that proficiency in English is essential for success in the modern world. English-language ability is especially critical if young men and women from Puerto Rico want to compete for jobs in the global economy. The bill that I reintroduced today is part and parcel of my commitment to our Island’s youth that they should be given every opportunity to become bilingual,” said Pierluisi.