Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN — State Sen. Judith Zaffirini is still trying to get a hearing for a bill that would require the state to do more to monitor public school bilingual education programs.

But if legislators balk, a federal judge could soon order them to do so.

The number of English deficient students keeps increasing — reaching 711,237 last year — and their performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills underscores their academic struggles.

Only 12 percent of eighth-grade limited English proficient students passed all TAKS standards last year. Only 8 percent of 10th-graders met all the standards.

"There's been a train wreck in our secondary schools, but TEA only wants to know the body count, not what caused the wreck," David Hinojosa, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said of the Texas Education Agency.

Zaffirini, D-Laredo, is unsure why she can't get a hearing for Senate Bill 834, which has languished in the Senate Education Committee.

Jennifer Ransom Rice, spokeswoman for Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said, "We are not hearing the bill yet because anything said in a public hearing can be used against the state on an appeal."

MALDEF went back to court last year on behalf of LULAC and the GI Forum, asking U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice to enforce a 1971 order requiring the state to provide and monitor effective bilingual education.

"They're hoping that the judge will rule to order this, and if he does, then we can expedite this," Zaffirini said of her legislation.

The bill would direct the TEA to evaluate the effectiveness of bilingual education programs with on-site monitoring at each school district at least once every five years. Monitoring would include program content, staffing, learning materials and testing materials.

"It's very important. We support bilingual education, and we want to ensure that we have effective bilingual programs," Zaffirini said.

During the trial, lawyers for the state defended current practices for bilingual education and the monitoring of those programs.

Limited English students perform much better at the elementary levels, with 69 percent of third-graders meeting all the TAKS standards last year. But their performance begins to slide in middle school before lurching toward the bottom in high school.

"(Limited) English language children are not only struggling but failing, and TEA has no answers as to why they are failing," said Hinojosa, lead MALDEF attorney in the lawsuit, which ended in December.

A spokeswoman for the judge said there is no time frame for a ruling.

Lawmakers should monitor bilingual education programs even if Justice does not order them to do so, Hinojosa said.

"This monitoring is crucial to the success or failure of the English language learners, and not just English language learners but even more so to the state's economy and social interests."

Two other English language bills are moving through the Legislature. Senate Bill 1871 directs the TEA to gather data from various language instruction methods "so we can see which bilingual education programs are the most effective," Zaffirini said.

Shapiro's committee has approved legislation by Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, that would set up a pilot project in 20 school districts to test the effectiveness of dual language immersion programs.

Shapleigh reminded Shapiro in a letter last week about the pending MALDEF lawsuit.

"High-quality programs such as two-way dual language immersion, with adequate accountability measures and oversight, will respond directly to these (lawsuit) claims," Shapleigh wrote.