SACRAMENTO, CA—Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) has called upon Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to fully fund the $50 million Community Based English Tutoring Program (CBET) to provide more than 195,000 adults with limited English proficiency with the language and tutoring skills needed to help their children through school.

As the chart on the next page indicates, the CBET program provides $4.5 million in annual funding to 27 Orange County-based education agencies for CBET-funded English tutoring classes all over Orange County.
  
“Teaching English is one of my highest priorities in the State Assembly.  I encourage the Governor to honor his original commitment to fully fund the CBET funding because it is essential to providing parents with enough English proficiency skills so they can help their children with homework assignments, talk with teachers and take part in school-related activities,” said Assemblyman Solorio.

In his May budget revision, the Governor proposed $50 million in funding for the CBET program, but there have been concerns that he could back away from that commitment in light of the Senate Budget Committee’s suggestion to only provide $15.1 million in funding for the program, which would have lead to a $3.1 million funding loss for Orange County-based education agencies.   

In response to lobbying by Assemblyman Solorio and other lawmakers, the Senate backed off its suggestion to cut the CBET program and agreed to provide for full funding of the CBET program in the combined Assembly and Senate budget proposal that is currently being negotiated with Governor Schwarzenegger and his administration.

“The Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the CBET program because it is an essential component of our English Works program which seeks to improve the English proficiency of more than 50,000 adults by the end of the decade.  Our partnership with the City of Santa Ana and the Rancho Santiago Community College District to accomplish this goal seeks to achieve community-wide awareness of the connection between English proficiency, economic prosperity, sustainable employment and the fulfillment of the American dream,” said Michael Metzler, executive director of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce.

“We have thousands of residents that want to learn English in the community and the CBET program makes this possible.  Our elementary and middle school principals have found that the children of CBET students have better attendance and are more committed to their education than the children of parents with limited English proficiency who are not enrolled in the program,” said Rob Richardson, president of the Santa Ana Unified School District’s board of directors.  The school district gets $1 million in annual funding from the CBET program.

“I encourage CBET participants and other community members to contact the Governor’s office to register support for this important program,” said Assemblyman Solorio.  Here is the Governor’s contact information:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Email:  governor@governor.ca.gov

The CBET program was created by the passage of Proposition 227 in 1998 and reauthorized by AB 368 (Escutia) last year.  The program provides free or subsidized English-language instruction to parents or other community members who pledge to provide English language tutoring to students with limited English proficiency.
    
CBET Funding Allocated To Orange County Education Agencies

Assemblyman Jose Solorio represents the Sixty-Ninth Assembly District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, and Santa Ana.  For more information about Assemblyman Solorio you can visit www.assembly.ca.gov/solorio.