Rights group outraged by U-46's attempt to hike bilingual class sizes

A leading Mexican-American civil rights group is speaking out against Elgin Area School District U-46's attempt to get an exemption to state law on class-size caps for English language learners.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) Thursday afternoon submitted a letter to state board of education Superintendent Christopher Koch, urging him to deny the district's request, and "vigorously monitor" U-46's bilingual programs.

"If a waiver were granted, what stops other districts feeling the same numbers crunch, money crunch?" MALDEF staff attorney Alejandro Aixala asked. "What kind of precedent does it set?"

The five-year waiver request was one of three approved by the U-46 school board this week. Currently, state law caps bilingual classes at 90 percent of a district's average general education student-teacher ratio. If approved, the district intends to increase bilingual education class sizes to that of the average student-teacher ratio in general education classes.

"The cost of complying with (the state board of education's) rules and regulations for bilingual education has annually exceeded the dollars allocated for bilingual education in School District U-46, and the further reduction in state funding for bilingual education makes it unduly burdensome to require the district to continue to comply with this particular ... regulation," a memo of the modifications written by U-46 attorney Pat Broncato noted.

Districts across the state routinely ask for waivers and modifications to the school code each year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. However, other than U-46, not a single Illinois district has applied for a change to English language class-size caps.

U-46 is working at whittling down a $53.5 million budget deficit. With 19.9 percent of students in the district new to English, U-46 estimates the move is expected to save $500,000.

"MALDEF understands that school district U-46 has sought this waiver in an attempt to cut costs," the letter to Koch read. "... The waiver of class size would only save the district $500,000, a figure that pales in comparison to the (budget) gap facing the district."

The letter also suggests that the waiver request could adversely affect the multimillion dollar racial bias lawsuit currently pending against the district. The 2005 suit charges that U-46 violated constitutional rights of black and Hispanic students by placing them in older, more crowded schools; by busing them farther and more often; and providing them with unequal educational experiences compared to their white peers.

Aixala said his organization has not directly contacted U-46. Aside from the letter, he said, MALDEF will wait to act further until a decision is made by the state to grant or deny the waiver request.