English Fluency a Must, Cavazos Insists

Swift criticism Friday did not keep Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos from repeating his assertion that students who do not speak English are not ready for public education.

“Parental involvement and language competency are basic,” Cavazos told about 1,500 teachers and principals in this city on the Mexican border. “If that child cannot speak English the first day of school, that child is not ready to learn.”

In a panel discussion later, South Texas superintendents criticized Cavazos, saying students were capable of learning in other languages.

“The comment that we heard this morning that students who are not speaking English are not ready to learn is a disabling comment,” said Robert Zamora, superintendent of the La Joya School District.

Later Friday, during a news conference across the border in Nuevo Laredo, Cavazos repeated the comment and added: “We work with the parents, with the schools to prepare the youngsters in English so they will learn. . . . My final point that I always make is that they not forget that other language and that culture.”

Cavazos, former president of Texas Tech University, said he supports bilingual education but that its goal should be to encourage students to speak English so they do not miss opportunities in the United States.

It was not the first time that Cavazos has drawn criticism from fellow Latinos for his comments on Latino education. In April, the League of United Latin American Citizens criticized him for blaming Latino parents for the high dropout rate among their children.

In March, he angered some Latino lawmakers when he told the state Legislature that money was not the answer to education problems.

Cavazos repeated that stance Friday, saying that education could be improved by giving teachers more freedom and allowing local schools more control.

“The new bottom line in education is not how much do we need to spend but how much are our students learning,” Cavazos said.

He stressed that he was referring to public schools across the nation, not just in Texas, and acknowledged that “there have been some inequities” in school finances in the state.

In Nuevo Laredo, Cavazos and Mexican Education Secretary Manuel Bartlett Diaz signed an agreement calling for closer educational ties between the two countries. The agreement paves the way for a “border conference” on education next winter.