UpFront News Briefs
July 25, 2003
OVERHEARD
“It’s been very difficult trying to interview these people because they have either left the country or changed their addresses; moved away. … We cannot find them.”
– Dan Kane of the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, on Chinese refugees who entered the United States in 1993 aboard the Golden Venture. Kane later discovered that the 38 refugees were on Capitol Hill seeking amnesty. He said they would not be deported.
ENGLISH-ONLY LAW
Mass. Teachers Could be Fired Over New Fluency Rule
Teachers who could be fired under new rules that require them to be fluent in English are fighting the law in court and with complaints to the Massachusetts’s anti-discrimination commission.
The law, passed by voters in November when they approved ballot Question 2, eliminates most bilingual education programs, replacing them with English-only classes. It also requires schools to prove their teachers are proficient in English by Aug. 15.
In Lawrence, Mass., where 20 teachers failed an English proficiency test, 17 have hired a lawyer to challenge the rule and convince the district they should keep their jobs.
Attorney Jennifer Rieker met with Lawrence school officials on July 24 to negotiate a compromise.
“People are just starting to realize what Question 2 is,” Rieker told The Boston Globe. “I don’t think people had any idea how it was going to be implemented at all.”
In Lowell, Mass., four Cambodian-born teachers filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, saying they were singled out because of their race. Songim Imm, who has taught in Lowell for 15 years, mostly in bilingual math classes, refused to take the fluency test.
“I feel all the work I have done for the past 20 years does not count,” he said.
Rieker said the state’s rules for deciding how to administer the fluency tests are unfair. For example, she said, the state leaves it to the principals to decide — through classroom observers — who needs to take test. But some administrators aren’t qualified to do that, she said.
She added that the state set the passing score on the oral exam too high.
Kimberly Beck of the state Department of Education said the rules were developed with input from educators, adding it was appropriate for principals to decide who takes the exam.
Most schools are using the Oral Proficiency Interview, a test developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and approved by the state.
Some districts are offering help to teachers who failed.
— The Associated Press
EDUCATION
UC Students Say No to Fee Hikes
A group of UC system students is suing over recent fee increases.
The students filed suit against the UC Board of Regents in San Francisco Superior Court on July 24, said UC Berkeley law student o Kashmiri, one of the plaintiffs. The suit tries to stop part of the fee increases and seek refunds of some previous hikes.
The students said that regents breached contracts for the price of the spring semester and summer term when fees were raised after students had already registered and been billed.
Last week, regents increased fees for professional students by up to 30 percent, which the students say is almost $2,000 a year for law, business and medical students.
“Students and their families shouldn’t have to pay for the regents’ and the legislature’s mistakes,” Kashmiri said. Other plaintiffs are from UC San Francisco, UC Davis and UCLA.
The regents’ vote last week raised fees by 25 percent and authorized an extra 5 percent hike if necessary. It added $960 to annual undergraduate fees and followed a $405 annual increase approved this spring. The average in-state undergraduate fee is now about $4,800 for in-state undergraduates — with additional miscellaneous campus fees, the average rises to $5,274.
UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman said regents didn’t want to raise fees but had no choice. UC is facing about $360 million in cuts and some plans under consideration would take anywhere from another $80 million to $400 million out of UC’s state-funded budget of about $3 billion.
— Michelle Locke, A.P.
HAWAIIAN RECOGNITION
‘Akaka Bill’ Remains in Limbo
The U.S. Department of Justice is questioning Congress’ authority to pass the so-called “Akaka Bill” granting federal recognition to Native Hawaiians, Gov. Linda Lingle said July 24.
“My understanding now is it’s an issue of whether or not Congress has the authority under the Indian Commerce Clause of the Constitution to grant this type of recognition to Native Hawaiians,” Lingle said.
“I think that could be a plus. It’s getting away from the race-based issue and talking about a different legal issue,” she said.
The bill would establish an office in the Department of the Interior to address Native Hawaiian issues and create an interagency group composed of representatives of federal agencies that currently administer programs and policies affecting Native Hawaiians.
In effect, the federal government would recognize Hawaiians as a native population, as they already do American Indians and Native Alaskans.
Critics of the proposal object because they say it legitimizes race-based preferences. They point to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Feb. 23, 2000, Rice v. Cayetano decision, which struck down the Hawaiians-only requirement to vote in an OHA election as racial discrimination in voting.
Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation met with Justice Department officials on July 23 to discuss the bill. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai‘i) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawai‘i) now don’t believe the Akaka bill will get a Senate vote before the monthlong August recess.
However, Republican Gov. Lingle had planned to travel to Washington, D.C., this week to lobby Republican lawmakers to support the bill if it were to be taken up before the recess.
Akaka’s office issued a statement about the July 23 meeting with Justice Department officials.
“We helped the department to better understand the history of Hawai‘i and the importance of this legislation to the people of Hawai‘i,” Akaka said. “The department provided us with a clearer picture of the analysis that is currently underway by both legal and policy analysts.”
Inouye described it as “a most promising meeting.”
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawai‘i) said if the Bush administration supports the bill, it will pass easily.
— Bruce Dunford, A.P.
FATAL SHOOTING
S.J. Police Trying to Reach Out
In an effort to repair relations with San Jose’s large Vietnamese American community, police began airing radio spots expressing regret for a fatal shooting of a young mother inside her house.
“We would like to express our condolences to the family of Cau Thi Bich Tran and the Vietnamese American community in San Jose,” a San Jose police officer says in Vietnamese in the public service announcements. “We are very concerned and are paying close attention to this matter.”
The spots began running on Vietnamese-language KZSJ-AM on July 19.
Tran, 25, was shot and killed July 13 after allegedly brandishing a weapon and making a motion as if to throw it at a police officer. Family members said Tran was holding a 10-inch vegetable peeler. Officers were at Tran’s house to investigate reports of a toddler wandering by himself.
The radio announcement made little impression on some of the city’s 80,000 Vietnamese American residents.
“They came to the house and not even a minute later they shoot the woman,” said cell phone salesman Danny Bui, 25. “Why not use pepper spray? The woman is not even 100 pounds.”
The district attorney’s office last week called for open grand jury hearings into the shooting.
— A.P.
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