Joe Lieberman: “I support Senator Reid's amendment, #460 to expand the 21st Century Community Learning Centers to include projects with…”

“I support Senator Reid's amendment, #460 to expand the 21st Century Community Learning Centers to include projects with emphasis on language and life skills programs for limited English proficient students. We know that assisting students to acquire English proficiency is becoming increasingly important as many of our communities are receiving immigrant children from many different countries. Limited English proficient students are at greatest risk for dropping out of school and are among some of our lowest performing subgroups of students. I have long been an advocate for investing increased Federal resources and greater attention on limited English proficient students. My own ESEA reauthorization bill, S. 303, calls for $1 billion in formula funds focused on increasing the English proficiency and raising the academic performance in all core subjects of our immigrant children. One of the primary risk factors for low academic performance and dropping out of school among immigrant students is their lack of English proficiency.”