Education officials from San Diego and Mexico said Thursday that they want to work together to support the region's binational students.
Why it matters
When American-born students enroll in Mexican schools, they face several challenges. Fabiola Bagula, deputy superintendent for the San Diego Unified School District, said one of the biggest is language.
“One of the things I’ve learned now, in speaking to the deputy secretary of Baja California, is that when our students for some reason have to move back to Mexico, they actually don’t speak Spanish,” she said. “There are tens of thousands of students that are American-born citizens that go back to Mexico and actually don’t attend school because of the language differences.”
By the numbers
Edgar Lampkin, CEO of the California Association of Bilingual Education, said more dual language immersion programs could help bilingual students keep their language skills strong. He said 40% of California’s K-12 students are English language learners.
“Even though we have the largest number of English learners in California, compared to the rest of the United States, we are behind when it comes to the number of English learners that are in dual-immersion programs,” he said.
The California Department of Education aims to have 1,600 dual-language immersion programs in the state by 2030. Lampkin said that’s about 600 more than there are now.
"If we're going to meet that goal, we have to work together," he said in Spanish.
Looking ahead
Others said allowing more teachers from Mexico to teach in the U.S. could also help support binational students.
"Our students in California ... deserve to have teachers who represent them, speak the language, understand the culture," said Jason Hammond Garcia, CEO of the International Alliance Group, which facilitates an international teacher exchange program.
Lampkin said bilingual students are an important part of the future workforce.
“If we want our students to be globally competitive, we need to have our students be able to speak a minimum of four languages,” Lampkin said. “It’s doable in California.”
San Diego Unified School District school board member Richard Barrera agreed.
"When we come together and invest in a young person who gets up early in the morning to cross the border to come to school here, or in a young person who grew up in the United States, is an American citizen, who’s living in Tijuana or Mexico right now ... what we’re doing is lifting up the potential of incredibly talented, skilled binational, bicultural young people with grit and with determination," he said.
