Arizona public schools have struggled with how to pay for a new state program teaching immigrant students English, especially since districts requested around $300 million but received only $40 million.

At Arizona’s largest district, with 73,000 students, for example, Mesa Public Schools administrators received $1.8 million in state money for the new English-learner program, but they expect to spend about $7 million.

It meant digging to find another $5.2 million out of a slim budget, which already had to be cut by $13 million. More than 100 district positions were left unfilled, including associate superintendent and school librarians.

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Madera Madera is one of thousands of Lawrence High School alumni who have participated in the Accept the Challenge program at Merrimack. The program accepts freshmen and sophomore English-as-a-second-language students, who attend language skills classes two to four days a week after school in Lawrence.

Merrimack students are paired up with Lawrence students to mentor, tutor, and assist them with homework and problem-solving techniques.

The Lawrence students live on Merrimack’s campus for five weeks in the summer, with underclassmen honing their English conversation skills and upperclassmen learning about local history, American literature and politics.

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Twelve years after arriving in Canada from Cambodia, Sorem Vann is starting to smile in English.

Four years after arriving in Canada from Sudan, so is Parmino Pul.

Well, they’re starting to smile while speaking English.

Yesterday, the two were among 13 employees to complete an English as a Second Language course at a London meat-processing factory with hundreds of workers whose first language isn’t English.

The class was a result of a partnership between the Thames Valley District school board and food giant Cargill.

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As more and more students who are learning English as a second language show up in Roanoke schools, teachers and administrators are increasingly relying on summer classes like this one to help them master the language and the skills they will need during the school year. A few months ago, Manishimwe Leoncia and the other refugee and immigrant children at Fallon Park could barely speak English. Soon they’ll be chattering away with their friends and teachers.

It’s because of English Language Learners summer school, a monthlong program that ends today and which draws children from all over Roanoke to help them learn English.

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Sibling rivalry doesn’t seem to be part of the picture as 17-year-old Milton Quinteros and 18-year-old Transito Quinteros work to improve their English this summer.

The brother and sister, who moved here with their family from El Salvador about a year ago, consistently pair up during activities in their summer English-as-a-second-language class—a five-hour-a-day, six-week reading class at Park View High School in this suburban Virginia community about a 30-mile drive west of the nation’s capital.

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A federal judge’s ruling that Texas has failed its students with limited English skills is suddenly the most eagerly awaited document in educational circles.

U.S. Senior District Judge William Wayne Justice’s ruling, released Friday, tossed out his own judgment last summer that Texas was doing an adequate job of providing students with the education they need to function in English.

School administrators don’t know the details of the latest ruling. But they know it will significantly change the way they teach the ever-increasing number of students who arrive at school speaking something other than English.

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Fareed Hamraqul and his family left Afghanistan, fleeing the Taliban for Uzbekistan in 1992. Then, five months ago, they left home amid more unrest, this time ending up in Philadelphia. Hamraqul, who will be a junior at Northeast High School in September, now spends sweltering summer mornings soaking up his fifth language. The bright teen’s English is halting, but his message is clear.

“Every day, students help me, teachers help me,” Hamraqul said yesterday through a translator. “Thank God I am here.” Here is the Philadelphia School District’s summer refugee program at Northeast, one of four around the city. It’s a free, intense summer class designed for high school students who are new to the country or who want extra help with English.

For the last six years, many new immigrants have spent their summers learning English, making up credits, and working to feel more comfortable in an American classroom. The school district uses the word refugee loosely, and most often it is not referring to those who seek political asylum in the United States.

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Efforts to make English the official language of the United States received a boost this week when three members of Congress added their support as co-sponsors of H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act. The affirmations by Rep. Henry Brown, Jr., Rep. Jack Kingston and Rep. Jon Porter push the total number of bi-partisan co-sponsors of the measure to 152.

“I want to thank Representatives Porter, Kingston and Brown, along with the many co-sponsors of H.R. 997 for their efforts to focus on assimilation within our diverse society,” said Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of the Board of U.S. English, Inc. “At a time when some would have us believe that Americans need to learn the language of the immigrants, I am pleased to see that a large contingent of Congressional leaders remain focused on English, the language of opportunity and unity in our nation.”

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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s recent comment that Americans should get their children to study Spanish or another second language has drawn an avalanche of criticism from English-only advocates and cable television anti-immigration zealots.

But Obama couldn’t have been more right. Whether it’s Spanish, or other languages, Americans are way behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to mastering other languages.

Speaking in Georgia on July 8, Obama said in response to a question on bilingualism, ‘We live in a global economy. And, you know, I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, `We need to have English-only.’ They want to pass a law, ‘We want English-only.’ ‘’

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Did you hear the one about the guy who wrote a book of jokes to help Chinese learn English?

That would be Gerry Haukebo.

Haukebo, a Pelican Lake resident, has written jokes for the book Did You Hear the One About…Classic American Jokes that was then translated into Chinese. The book is for Chinese people learning the English language.

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