Great question! As far as I can tell, a few bills that were supposed to amend the situation gained some traction but have since died. But interestingly, a poll of voters in 2019 showed that a majority would be in favor of repealing this law. So maybe another proposition is in the works? We'll see! You can read more about it here: https://www.azmirror.com/blog/push-to-repeal-english-only-education-appears-abandoned-in-2022/
This is a great write-up, thank you. I remember voting no on Prop 203 and being disappointed at the way things were beginning to change in Arizona. In the 90s, Arizona universities, especially NAU were instrumental in helping to make higher education more accessible and affordable for all the disparate tribes and communities spread across the state through distance learning and classes in languages other than English. The sad irony is that Arizona could be an incredible asset to the revival and spread of so many native languages, but not until "English-first" policies get put to ground.
Wow, what a small world! I absolutely agree that Arizona could be a great place for language diversity to flourish, and it's a tragedy that the systems that we have in place do not support that as much as they could.
This week’s article is LONG, so I trimmed down the “English only” section to focus more in on the language learning aspect -- but I want to add that there are a lot of other problems with “English only” policies (for example, that they blatantly force non-dominant languages out of public domains such as education, actively contribute to loss of language and culture, etc.). Language rights will certainly be addressed in more depth in the future! :)
Is there anything coming down the legislative pipeline that addresses a better way to support ELLs?
Great question! As far as I can tell, a few bills that were supposed to amend the situation gained some traction but have since died. But interestingly, a poll of voters in 2019 showed that a majority would be in favor of repealing this law. So maybe another proposition is in the works? We'll see! You can read more about it here: https://www.azmirror.com/blog/push-to-repeal-english-only-education-appears-abandoned-in-2022/
This is a great write-up, thank you. I remember voting no on Prop 203 and being disappointed at the way things were beginning to change in Arizona. In the 90s, Arizona universities, especially NAU were instrumental in helping to make higher education more accessible and affordable for all the disparate tribes and communities spread across the state through distance learning and classes in languages other than English. The sad irony is that Arizona could be an incredible asset to the revival and spread of so many native languages, but not until "English-first" policies get put to ground.
Wow, what a small world! I absolutely agree that Arizona could be a great place for language diversity to flourish, and it's a tragedy that the systems that we have in place do not support that as much as they could.
This week’s article is LONG, so I trimmed down the “English only” section to focus more in on the language learning aspect -- but I want to add that there are a lot of other problems with “English only” policies (for example, that they blatantly force non-dominant languages out of public domains such as education, actively contribute to loss of language and culture, etc.). Language rights will certainly be addressed in more depth in the future! :)