tuesday, february 17, 1981
lincoln, nebraska vol. 106, no. 27
Proposed funding cuts affect bilingual education
By Tom Prentiss
When the Reagan administration announced its budget
cuts, a Bell tolled heavily for bilingual education pro
grams. Education Secretary Terrel Bell recently called the bi
lingual education program proposed by the Carter admini
stration "harsh, inflexbile, burdensome, unworkable and
incredibly costly."
Nancy Rowch, a bilingual consultant for the Nebraska
Department of Education, said the Reagan proposal won't
drastically change the current situation.
Rowch said the Carter guidelines were never enacted
by Congress.
Frans Amelinckx, an associate professor of Modern
Languages, said the Carter proposals were too rigid.
"They insisted upon having bilingual education for
school districts even if they couldn't afford it,"
Amelinckx said.
Amelinckx said it is hard to find enough teachers who
can speak Vietnamese or Spanish for one district.
Rowch said a 1974 law suit involving parents of
Chinese students in San Francisco was the impetus for
creating school-district guidelines.
She said parents of Chinese students were dissatisfied
with the education opportunities their children were
offered.
Guidelines still enforced
Rowch said the guidelines require school districts to
identify the language abilities of minority students and
provide programs to aid them. Those guidelines still will
be enforced by the Office of Civil Rights, she said.
Amelinckx said the modern language department is not
involved in the teaching of bilingual programs on campus.
He said that is the Teacher's College responsibility.
"Bilingual education is a very valuable means of edu
cation for students whose main language is not English,"
said Amelinckx.
Although the program can be costly, Rowch said, it
can benefit student's education.
She said the directive by Bell already has resulted in a
movement to repeal some mandatory bilingual education
programs in Colorado.
Rowch said there is a "feeling that this cutback is an
indication of where the Reagan administration stands to
wards minorities."
Rowch isn't the only one who thinks that way.
Gloria Reifenrath, assistant director of the Mexican
American Commission, said the cutback is a sign of things
to come in the Reagan administration.
She said welfare and financial assistance at the college
level also will be curtailed and will hurt students' educa
tional opportunities.
Students hurt by cutbacks
Saying that many middle-income students will be hurt
by funding cutbacks, she said it is evident minority stu
dents would be hurt even more.
Reifenrath said bilingual education suffers from mis
perceptions by the public.
"The purpose is to teach English but we don't want
children to fall behind in academics," she said. "The
strength of bilingual education programs is that they en
courage non-English speaking students to learn English."
Joe Aguilar, an associate professor of elementary edu
cation in the Teacher's College, said the purpose of bi
lingual programs is to use the student's native language for
a certain time period while phasing-in acquisition of
English.
Reifenrath said students will suffer the most from the
cutbacks. Without the program many students won't be
able to survive in competitive schools, she said.
Aguilar said Bell's directive urges states to handle bi
lingual education in their states.
He said cuts in the program won't affect UNL because
there are no federal funds on campus for bilingual education.
Commission elimination defended, criticized
By Patti Gallagher
Terminating an advisory board for post
secondary education would save tax
dollars, according to a senatorial aide, but
is unwan anted and unnecessary, according
to a commission member and NU Board of
Regents member.
LB507, sponsored by Sen. Sam Cullan
of Hemingford, proposes the elimination
of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission
for Postsecondary Education. It would
shift all duties of the commission to the
state Department of Education.
Testimony on the bill will be heard to
day at 1:30 p-m. at the State Capitol.
According to aide Craig Nelson, Cullan
was approached by several commission
members who proposed its elimination.
Cutting the commission would save a
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1
half-million dollars in operating costs,
Nelson said.
The postsecondary commission primari
ly serves as an advisory board to handle
matters shared by the University of Nebra
ska, state colleges, technical schools and
private higher education institutions.
The commission also accepts and ad
ministors federal and state loans, grants
and programs and determines institutional
eligibility for such dollars.
It has a director with a staff of six, six
governor-appointed commissioners and six
commissioners from the various education
al institutions.
According to Nelson, the commission
responsibilities would be assumed by the
Department of Education in the bill. The
structure would be determined by the de
partment, he said.
Regent Kermit Hansen of Omaha said
the termination of the commission is un
warranted and unnecessary.
"I doubt it would have an effect
economically or in efficiency," Hansen
said.
He also said the motivation of the bill is
not clear, adding its intent will be brought
out during testimony.
"I would like to have a greater indica
tion of who wants the commission io do
more or less or differently than it present
ly does," he said.
The executive director of the commis
sion said LBS07 is a faulty bill. It does not
meet federal regulations nor fulfill state
responsibilities, William S. Fuller said.
"The staff simply has not researched
this fully," he said.
Fuller declined to specify how the bill
would violate federal law, saying it would
give Cullan evidence to use in testimony.
He said the commissioners he has
spoken with-"and I've talked to all of
them" do not want the commission
eliminated.
According to Lincoln attorney, James
N. Ackerman, also a commission member,
LB507 is not the answer to the criticism
of the commission.
"People who criticize the commission
do not understand that it is an advisory
commission," Ackerman said. He said it
serves only to collect, organize and report
data pertinent to secondary education in
stitutions. "The criticisms that are made are an im
plication that this commission is not doing
anything," he said. However, it does not
have statutory authority to do more, he
added.
Ackerman said federal law mandates the
commission have representatives from the
secondary education sector and distribute
federal funds and state funds.
According to a staff member on the
commission, in LB507 there would "no
longer be a forum where issues affecting all
post secondary institutions could be
aired."
John Wickstreck said "There simply
would not be any arena where all these in
stitutions would be able to work together
for all the citizens of Nebraska."
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Photo by Mark Billingsity
It didn't take very long for members of Angel Flight to hand out pieces of cake
commemorating the 112th birthday of the University of Nebraska. Karen
McAfee helps serve cake near the North desk of the Nebra&a Union Monday
morning even though the actual birthday was Sunday.
Photo by Mitch Hrdlicka
Four persons were injured Monday night when a car they were in crashed through a
guardrail and overturned in a concrete ravine at the corner of 16th and Holdrege streets
on the UNL campus. Two persons were reported in serious condition and another was
in good condition Monday night at Bryan Memorial Hospital, nursing supervisor Bob
Hahn said. The other person injured was treated and released from Lincoln General
Hospital, a hospital official said.