California looks to help English Language Learner students as schools plan full Reopening in fall

With most of California’s public school year of 2020-2021 being online, English Language Learner students throughout the state did not get the same curriculum as they would have with in-person education, and teachers and educations professionals plan on English Language Learners falling far behind due to the prolonged virtual learning in the state. Now though with the 2020-2021 school year coming to an end, California is planning on having a full reopening of classrooms for the 2021-2022 school year with virtual learning no longer existing in the public school system in the state.

After many schools being closed for over a year, California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a $94 billion public school budget for them to fully reopening in the fall of 2021. This budget includes money like $3.3 billion for teacher training, $1.1 billion to hire more teachers, and much more. Included in the budget includes $1 billion and plans to increase to $5 billion by 2025, in funding to go towards after-school instructional programs for English Language Learners and other disadvantaged students.

This money that has been allocated to the implementation of after-school programs for English Language Learners and other disadvantaged students in the state is important since for over a year these students have not gotten that extra instruction they needed and after-school programs have been non-existent online.

With studies showing that English Language Learner students in the state of California are lagging 30% behind their native English speaking peers due to over a year of beginning online, these new after-school programs’ goals will be to close that gap and get them back on track. Money and after-school programs can only fix so much, but it is definitely a start to getting these students back on track and has to potential for major success in closing the learning gap between English Language Learners and their native English-speaking peers.