Sacramento – Yesterday, the Assembly Committee on Education passed AB 952 (Reyes) which establishes the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program with the purpose of developing bilingual educators for California’s increasingly diverse classrooms.
“With the passage of Proposition 58 it is critical that we address our lack of authorized bilingual educators,” said Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes. “In the 21st century, language will be as important to business as technological efficiency, meaning that through greater access to bilingual education we can keep California’s economy competitive.”
According to a recent report of the Learning Policy Institute, Addressing California’s Growing Teacher Shortage: 2017 Update, Feb. 2017, California may be unprepared to meet the expected increase in demand for bilingual education teachers as schools develop and expand bilingual programs under Proposition 58. At just 700 new bilingual teachers in 2015–16, California authorizes fewer than half the number of new bilingual teachers than it did when bilingual education hiring was at its peak in the mid-1990s.
“We believe this bill is a practical and realistic approach to addressing the current shortage of bilingual education teachers and increasing the number of bilingual education teachers from which the school districts can recruit and hire for their bilingual/multilingual programs,” said Shelly Spiegel Coleman, Executive Director of Californians Together.
AB 952 will next be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. For more information on the bill, click here.
Contact: Galen Dobbins, galen.dobbins@asm.ca.gov, (916) 319-2047