Costs of Bilingual Education

Educators, policymakers, and others have long struggled with issues related to the additional costs involved in educating English language learners. These concerns increased after 1974, when the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that a failure to provide specialized instruction to these children constituted a violation of law. Although the decision did not mandate bilingual education, it was the preferred solution in many schools and communities, including the San Francisco Unified School District, the original venue of the Lau v. Nichols (1974) decision. One of the most consequential results of this landmark decision was to spur state efforts to improve their programs across their respective school districts. Much of this came about through the expansion of state-level bilingual education efforts. For a time, the legal requirement that English language learners be provided appropriate instruction enhanced the development of bilingual education in the public schools.

Federal funding for bilingual programs was first provided through an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. That amendment, known as Title VII, ESEA, or simply the Bilingual Education Act, provided funding for local school implementation of bilingual programs, with awards provided to schools that were successful in a competitive grant process. Funding levels depended on the amounts requested by the programs and could vary extensively, owing to the variation of bilingual education strategies being implemented. Because participation in Title VII was voluntary, it provided opportunities to pilot new bilingual education models but did not include mandates requiring states to implement bilingual programs. The Lau decision provided greater pressure for states with large numbers of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students (another label for English language learners, used often in policy documents) to adopt more effective instructional practices for this student population and to provide funding to support those efforts. An analysis of state requirements conducted in 1982 revealed that by then, 9 states had mandated implementation of bilingual instructional programs for LEP students. Another 16 states provided local option program implementation. Whether mandated or implemented at local option, all of these programs implied additional funding. They required information on the level of funding needed to implement an effective program.