Every non-English speaking child in Howard County cannot have his own personal translator. Yet there is far more that the school system can do than is being accomplished.
Currently, Howard language teachers are assigned only part-time to schools in the system's English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Students sometimes receive as little as four hours a week of specialized language instruction. The strain on ESOL teachers, however, can't compare with the burden born by students who need such services and the families who want to help but are often stymied by language barriers themselves.
The problem will not go away. This year, the ESOL population in Howard schools increased by 9 percent, from 502 to 550 students. That is down from last year's 16 percent rate of growth, but the numbers are unlikely to level off. Although there are no estimates for growth in the number of ESOL students, officials project that the county's population of non-English speakers will increase to 30,000 Hispanics and Asians by the year 2000. In 1990, that population totaled about 12,000.
While there will always be some who believe that the best way to learn English is to be forced to speak it, countless children lose ground each year because they don't receive proper assistance. It is not only non-English speakers who are affected. Other students are hurt when their teachers are distracted by special needs and school test scores decline when some students are allowed to slip behind.
Superintendent Michael E. Hickey has prepared a proposal that will put full-time language teachers in some county elementary and middle schools at a modest increase in the system's $700,000 ESOL budget. With the additional $125,000 Dr. Hickey wants to spend next year, officials would hire full-time language teachers for elementary schools that have more than 25 students with limited English proficiency and middle schools with more than 21 such students. High schoolers would continue to receive special assistance half of each school day at the Howard County School of Technology.
Dr. Hickey's idea is a step in the right direction. The Board of Education must realize that this is money well spent. The success of the county's schools lies in how well it educates all its children.