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N1: About two out of every three New Yorkers are either immigrants or children of immigrants. Placida Rodriguez arrived in New York from the Dominican Republic nearly 15 years ago and is a mother of two young children. For the past six year, she's worked as an education advocate at a largely Spanish-speaking non-profit...where she organizes parent meetings and rallies.
MB: RODRIGUEZ ON THE PHONE IN SPANISH - fade up and out
N2: Placida's English is still rough around the edges. Even today, she speaks mainly in Spanish and has had some difficulty filing government paperwork in the past...But the one area where Placida's language skills have continued to be a pose hurdles is in her interactions with her children's teachers.
AX: RODRIGUEZ: (:26) About four years ago, when I went to the school, the principal and the teachers -- nobody spoke Spanish and I don't speak English. /// we need translation because sometimes we don't understand what's going on with the kids in the school.
N3: Proponents of the Education Equity Act seek to change that. The bill would offer translations in eight of the most common foreign languages for all public school documents and meetings. But the bill's opponents say the proposal is simply impractical. City Council Minority Leader James Oddo of Staten Island is one.
AX: ODDO: (:08) This is a bill that would turn every parent teacher meeting, every PTA meeting into a mini United Nations. I think they should have to supply the translation earphones as well.
N4: All that translation would cost about 20 million dollars a year. Councilman Dennis Gallagher...a Queens Republican...says the city should be spending money to reduce overcrowding, improve teacher pay, or buy new textbooks...not setting a precedent for widespread translation.
AX: GALLAGHER: (:22) Where do we stop from here? If we do it for the Department of Education, do we have to do it for Department of Health, for Department of Business Services, for traffic signs, parking tickets - where does it stop?
N5: Both Oddo and Gallagher worry that...by providing translation...the city will discourage immigrants from learning English. But Kate Menken…a professor of education policy at City College…says the evidence shows immigrant families almost always end up speaking nothing but English within three generations.
AX: MENKEN: (:17) Whether or not we want to send an ideological message that English is the de facto official language of this country and that all parents need to abide by that is irrelevant. The reality is that the parents don't understand the kinds of education decisions they need to understand, and that impacts them and their children.
N6: The bill is still in its early stages before the city council...currently awaiting discussion by the education committee. Even if the bill passes, it is unlikely that funding would be immediately available because Mayor Bloomberg's 2005 budget already submitted. George Spencer, Columbia Radio News.