Language problem solved as lawsuit languished

As we mull over the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision regarding the 17-year-old English language learner lawsuit, it is important to note the justices based their conclusions largely on the fact that the people of Nogales had not waited around for a government solution to their problems. Instead, they had become proactive in figuring out and remedying their own education deficiencies.

Back in the early 1990s, many Nogales students were not receiving a decent public education. Children who entered school not knowing English at age 5 still didn't know English at age 10, so they were unable to participate in most academic programs. It is for this reason that school officials rounded up parents to protest through a lawsuit, now known as Flores v. Arizona. At the time it appeared the Nogales schools needed a great deal more funding for their bilingual education programs.

Starting in 2005, U.S. District Judge Raner Collins issued a series of rulings that the state was refusing to adopt an adequate spending plan to educate students who are not proficient in speaking English, and the 9th Circuit Court backed up the judge's authority to intervene. But the Supreme Court reversed that decision last month, in large part because so much has changed in Nogales and elsewhere in the past 10 years.

By the late 1990s, the people in the community concluded that the problem was more how the kids were being taught than how much money was being spent. This doesn't mean the school district had plenty of money; it definitely did not. However, some wise leaders of the community decided to take the situation into their own hands and do the best they could with what they had.

Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Roberto Montiel told the Nogales school board that it wasn't working to allow kids to function in Spanish through the early grades and then expect them to suddenly be proficient in English in the fifth grade. He talked about people appearing in his court who had spent 12 years in the Nogales school system but still needed a Spanish translator. He called it a "tragedy" with people "doomed to a dead-end existence of low-paying jobs or crime." (Editorial, Nogales International, August 3, 1999)

The board members listened and acted. They fired the bilingual education advocates, among them the superintendent and other top administrators. They were replaced with administrators willing to implement structured English immersion techniques.

When the 2000 Arizona initiative passed to abolish bilingual education, Nogales had already made the switch. Since that time, the academic progress of children in Nogales has been amazing. In fact, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has hired many of the Nogales educators responsible for this change to develop policy and teacher training workshops so other Arizona schools can profit from Nogales' success.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision noted specifically "the changed circumstances" of Nogales. This included moving from a bilingual education to a structured English immersion approach that has proven "significantly more effective." The justices praised superintendent Kelt Cooper for thereforms.

Let's recognize the people of Nogales as the heroes in the case of Flores v. Arizona, not only for setting an excellent example but also for their part in saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars!

Johanna Haver of Phoenix is a member of the Arizona English Language Learner Task Force. She can be reached at j.haver@cox.net.