Esteban Torres: “I rise in strong opposition to the Roth amendments to H.R. 6, Improving America's School Act, as it is called. The Roth…”

“I rise in strong opposition to the Roth amendments to H.R. 6, Improving America's School Act, as it is called. The Roth amendments would severely weaken and ultimately eliminate title VII, the bilingual education programs of H.R. 6, which were passed by the bipartisan leadership of the Committee on Education and Labor. The Roth amendments would undo a bipartisan initiative with a 26-year history of legislative and classroom success. It would deprive limited-English-proficient students, who are the fastest growing group of students in the Nation, of critical educational programs. It would also destroy a national infrastructure designed to cope effectively with the students. The Roth amendments would consign limited-English-proficient children to an inferior education and a generation of students would be lost, I say lost, in the educational system. For the first time ever, for the first time ever a bipartisan coalition on the Committee on Education and Labor worked together to pass a comprehensive authorization of title VII. These title VII programs have proven to be the best way to teach children with limited English proficiency and to teach them much-needed English language skills. I want to emphasize, teach them much-needed English skills. Not Spanish; we are not teaching kids Spanish. We are teaching them English, the language of this Nation.”