By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph school officials have been meeting with their colleagues throughout Missouri, discussing on how best to lobby the state legislature for more money to meet the special needs of a growing foreign student population.
The St. Joseph School District teaches English proficiency to immigrant students who primarily speak a foreign language, Spanish number one among them.
School Superintendent Gabe Edgar says the state school funding formula devised in 2006 couldn’t anticipate all the changes public school districts currently face.
“The issue is, public education in 2006 is nothing like public education in 2024,” Edgar tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And so, the resources and the challenges that we face, not just in St. Joseph but in the entire state of Missouri, have changed and so that formula probably needs to change to assist with some of those challenges. ELD obviously is one of those.”
ELD stands for English Language Development, which helps immigrant students who might or might not have a firm grasp of English. In 2017, St. Joseph public schools worked with about 750 students from other countries needing help with their English. That has grown to more than 1,306, which is slightly more than 10% of the St. Joseph student population of 10,000-plus.
Edgar says the St. Joseph School District simply doesn’t have the resources to adequately handle the growing number of students whose primary language is not English.
“It forces us to become very reactive,” Edgar says. “We want to be as proactive as we can in public education or in St. Joe School District and we have to be reactive, because we’re trying to figure out how to support these students. And it’s not fair to anybody. It’s not fair to staff. It’s not fair to the students. It’s not fair to anybody involved in the program.”
Students from immigrant families attending St. Joseph schools speak 34 foreign languages. Some have a firm understanding of English, at least formal English, while others cannot form simple sentences in English. It costs extras to bring them up to speed.
Edgar says the state school funding formula simply doesn’t provide adequate funding to handle an influx of students with varying proficiency in English.
“In 2006 when they built it there were pockets or segments of population that they assisted. That segment has change,” according to Edgar. “And so, the assistance needs to shift or the resources need to shift.”
Edgar says that while the number of immigrant students needing help with English has grown in St. Joseph, it forms a much higher percentage in some more rural school districts, where immigrants are attracted to jobs in the agricultural sector. Monet, in southwest Missouri, reports around 40% of its students speak another language as their native tongue. Milan, in northeast Missouri, reports around half its students do not speak English as their first language.
Edgar says he has been speaking with school officials across the state about the matter. He also has had discussions with the chair of the Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, Rep. Brad Pollitt of Sedalia. Pollitt served for 34 years in public education. The new legislative session begins in January.
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