OFIR’s Measure # 58 Oregon Voters pamphlet statement:

                                    VOTE YES ON MEASURE #58
 
A YES vote for Measure 58 is a vote for improving the education of our immigrant children.    It allows up to two years of specialized intensive English instruction, giving English Language Learners grade level skills in literacy and school subjects, and the ability to do regular classroom work in English.

It is a vote for integration and equity.

Immigrants have come to America for generations and successfully learned English in our public schools.  Mastering English is not only essential for personal success in education, work and civic life, but the language unites us as a country. 

Current programs using bilingual, ELD, ESL or ELL models in Oregon are failing our non-English speaking students.  Last year the Oregon Department of Education reported that only 22 of the 129 school districts met minimum standards - an almost 80% failure rate.  That is a disaster for the students.

Limited-English proficiency (LEP) students in Oregon are funded at one and

one half times the amount for regular students.   Financial support is not the problem, but the LEP programs that are failing our children are.   From 2005-07, among 8th graders learning English, only 15% passed the writing test and only 36% passed math - this is unacceptable.

Dr. Rosalie Pedalino Porter, author of Forked Tongue:  The Politics of Bilingual Education, advisor to public school districts across the country and to the U.S. Congress, said the following, "California, Arizona and Massachusetts recently changed their state laws to improve the education of English Learners. They threw out bilingual programs that never worked and require English Immersion teaching.  There is already documented proof in these states that teaching children English from the first day of school, with special help, gives the greatest chance for academic success."

The first priority for our LEP students is mastery of English as quickly as possible.

A YES vote for Measure 58 benefits all children.

Paid for by Oregonians for Immigration Reform PAC