President Donald Trump’s federal budget proposal, announced in early May, calls for the elimination of nearly $900 million in Title III federal funding used by states and districts to support the nation’s 5 million English learners.
The “skinny budget” says that the U.S. Department of Education’s office of English language acquisition (OELA), which most recently oversaw Title III funds, “deemphasizes English primacy by funding NGOs and States to encourage bilingualism.” OELA is currently down to about one employee following a wave of Education Department staff cuts earlier this year.
Trump also signed an executive order in March declaring English the official national language of the United States.
Federal laws requiring schools to provide language support to students classified as English learners do not mandate specific instructional models, such as bilingual education programs or English-only programs. While some education leaders, including former Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, advocate for multilingualism for all students, they do so largely because of research highlighting the linguistic, cognitive, and academic benefits of bilingualism, experts said.
Researchers spoke with Education Week about what studies say on the long-term effects of young students learning more than one language simultaneously, and what may come from the loss of direct federal support for English learners.
Can learning more than one language simultaneously harm students’ linguistic and academic progress?
The short answer is no, experts said. Research over the years has instead found multiple benefits from multilingualism.
However, some academic performance data from young students may paint a more complicated picture.
A child learning two languages simultaneously will show up worse on some early language and literacy metrics, said Conor Williams, a senior research fellow at the Century Foundation.
For instance, these students may appear to have a smaller English vocabulary than monolingual English speakers. But when measuring total vocabulary across both languages, such as Korean and English or Spanish and English, bilingual children typically know more words in total than their monolingual peers.
As bilingual students advance through their K-12 education, they often attain higher levels of English proficiency than monolingual peers, report better academic outcomes overall, and benefit from an advantage of linguistic and cognitive competencies.
These benefits can emerge as early as 3, said Gabriela Uro, the program director for English learner and migrant education services at the research nonprofit WestEd. Research shows that these young children can differentiate between the grammatical structures of different languages. For instance, when speaking with family in Spanish, they say a noun before an adjective (like el carro rojo), but with English-speaking peers, they naturally reverse the structure (the red car).
“They won’t name it, but they already start internalizing the structures,” Uro said. “Their brain figures out there are two different systems, and they access them.”
What benefits can arise from multilingualism?
There are cognitive, cultural, and economic benefits to allowing students to learn more than one language.
Studies involving functional MRIs found that speaking more than one language helps develop the part of the brain that handles executive functioning, Uro said.
Developing fluency in both English and a heritage language can help students connect with their cultural identity and help them communicate with multiple generations of their family, Williams added. Skills in one language, such as reading and speaking, can transfer to other languages with similar grammatical roots, such as English, French, and Spanish.
There’s also the long-term economic benefit to entering the workforce with more than one language, Williams said, which is something families from wealthier socio-economic backgrounds recognize and value.
“If you said, ‘Hey, we could wave a magic wand tomorrow and get your kid proficient in German or French or whatever,’ everybody would take it. All the rich people would take it. Nobody would say, ‘Oh, I don’t know. That might mess up their math skills,’” Williams said.
Researchers over the years have looked into questions of equitable access to dual-language immersion programs, especially among lower-income English-learner families.
What is the difference between bilingual education and dual-language programs?
The term bilingual education originated during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Dual-language immersion programs later emerged as a specific instructional approach within the broader umbrella of bilingual education, experts said.
Historically, bilingual education focused on English learners, while dual-language immersion programs aim to serve both English learners and native English speakers, Uro said. For instance, some of these programs are designed to be heritage-language programs for English-speaking students, as in the case of Hmong-language programs.
What effect could cutting Title III funds have on English learners?
Though advocates have often claimed Title III funding isn’t enough to fund supplemental programs for English learners, experts warn that eliminating this stream of federal support could further undermine English learners’ access to effective language instruction.
Before the president’s budget proposal was released, Education Department officials indicated that oversight of Title III dollars might shift to the office of elementary and secondary education. Some researchers fear that move could mean less direct support for English learners.
“Eliminating OELA and Title III funding would really go against some of the protected civil rights of these students, and the government having that role in enforcing some of those rights,” said Manuel Vazquez Cano, a managing researcher of multilingual learners at the nonprofit Education Northwest.
