CA Governor’s final budget includes ample funding for Asian-language bilingual accreditations.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, JULY 8, 2022, LOS ANGELES, CA – Last week, the governor signed the final 2022-23 California Budget and included $5 Million for Asian-language bilingual teacher education programs in California. This funding will provide a solution to the dramatic shortage of accredited dual immersion language teachers in California – a problem that limited the education options for Asian language speaking students. According to the California Department of Education, more than 1,000 bilingual accreditations were issued in the 2019-2020 school year; however, only 89 teachers were accredited in an Asian language.
“This is a huge win for CA K-12 schools. With Vietnamese and Mandarin as two of the most spoken languages in public schools, this funding will ensure that every student can access the education options they deserve,” said Connie Chung Joe, Chief Executive Officer at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles. “Moreover, with the rise in anti-Asian sentiment we’ve seen during this pandemic, dual language immersion provides another long-term strategy to this problem, as studies show that dual language programs increase students’ cultural sensitivity and awareness.”
“I have seen first-hand the benefits of dual-immersion language studies,” said California Senator Tom Umberg (Senate District 34), a key supporter of this budget request. “Vietnamese and Korean are prominent languages spoken in Orange County and we have the first Korean-dual immersion programs in the U.S. This funding will prepare our students for the 21st-century economy giving them a competitive advantage whether they are going into college or career.”
Over the next four years, the funding will go toward building the infrastructure needed to recruit, train and support aspiring teachers looking to earn the necessary accreditation to teach dual-immersion language programs.
“Thank you to the governor and legislature for including this essential funding for our community and the CSU Asian Bilingual Teacher Education Program Consortium,” said Professor Fay Shin, Chair of the CSU Asian Bilingual Teacher Education Program Consortium and professor at CSU Long Beach. “These critical resources will build out a reliable pipeline of bilingual accredited teachers by paying for up to 20 teachers to take accreditation classes, hire an administrative staff to run the CSU Asian Bilingual teacher Education Program Consortium, and launch a pilot program to establish a network of aspiring dual-language accredited teachers.”
“The AAPI community is the fastest growing community in California and this funding will be indispensable for future language access. We need more accredited Asian-language teachers in the state to support the tremendous demand for dual-language immersion programs. This funding is a first step to train more teachers so all California students are able to participate in these programs if they choose to do so,” said Senator Dr. Richard Pan, Chair of the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. The Caucus included this budget request as one of their priority asks of the year.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – California (Advancing Justice – CA) is a joint partnership of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (Advancing Justice-ALC) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (Advancing Justice-LA). Our policy team is based in Sacramento and works with the Policy Director at Advancing Justice-ALC and the Policy Strategist at Advancing Justice-LA. We work to pass statewide legislation to improve the opportunities and quality of life for underserved communities, such as people of color and immigrants. We encourage Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities to have a role in leading policy reform in California.
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