SACRAMENTO – In this week’s Democratic weekly radio address, Assemblymember Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana) discusses important efforts to help improve English proficiency for California children and adults.

Click onto the following link for the English language MP3 file. The running time is 2:40.
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/Newsline/Audio/20071012RadioAddressEnglishEnglishSolorio.mp3

Click onto the following link for the Spanish language MP3 file. The running time is 3:42.
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/Newsline/Audio/20071012RadioAddressEnglishEspanolSolorio.mp3

The transcripts are below.

English:

Hello, my name is Assemblyman Jose Solorio and I am here to talk to you about the importance of teaching English which is one of my top priorities in the California Legislature.

As the son and grandson of migrant farmworkers, I know first hand the challenges of learning English, but I also know about the great rewards that come with learning the language.

Learning English is essential to succeeding in American society.

I represent the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana which enroll nearly 70,000 English learner students. Statewide, there are 1.6 million English learners—which represent nearly one-third of the public school children.

Unfortunately our public schools are struggling to keep up with the changing educational needs of this diverse student population. When schools fail to keep up, students suffer.

School data shows that the achievement gap continues to be 40 percentage points wide between English only students and their English learner counterparts.

That’s why I have proposed AB 1177 which establishes the Accelerated English Acquisition and Literacy Pilot Program for school districts who volunteer to participate in the program.

The bill provides for a 5-year pilot program that provides a comprehensive English-only reading, language arts, and English language development curriculum that is designed for EL students, especially those with little or no knowledge of English.

I have also fought to protect budget funding for two important state programs that seek to improve English skills for children and adults.

The $50 million Community Based English Tutoring Program or CBET program provides more than 195,000 adults with limited English proficiency with the language and tutoring skills needed to help their children through school.

I also urged the Governor to provide $1 million in funding for an evaluation of the English Learner Best Practices Program which seeks to identify and promote the “best practices” of schools where EL students are achieving successful outcomes.

Although, I was disappointed to learn that the Governor vetoed $500,000 of this funding when he signed the budget bill, I am proud that money was approved and made available to begin identifying best practices.

Improving the English proficiency of both children and adults will provide for a better educated and more highly skilled workforce, which will benefit both workers and the entire economy.

This has been Assemblyman Jose Solorio. Thank you for listening.