The following editorial is from the opinion page of The Republican newspaper in Springfield. It reflects views of the newspaper’s leadership and not necessarily those of MassLive. Readers are invited to share their opinions by emailing to letters@repub.com.
The line to learn English in Massachusetts is so long that if you’re a recent immigrant at the end, you have little hope of getting to the front.
Now, some people at the end of that line might have to give up hope.
That’s because state education administrators recently told small schools across Massachusetts to plan on cuts of 20% to their funding come September.
Wyvonne Stevens-Carter, the state director of adult education for Massachusetts, told schools from Boston to Pittsfield the state could not depend on continued federal funding from the Trump administration’s Department of Education – or what’s left of the department, now that the president is bent on dismantling it.
Gov. Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature are contributing to the problem, agreeing to cut nearly $1 million from what’s known as the adult basic education budget for next fiscal year. Money to educate adults will fall by nearly 2%, while the entire state budget is expected to increase by more than 6%.
The students who attend adult basic education classes (ABE to those in the field) include teenagers bullied and forgotten in high school. They are grandmothers who dropped out of school 30 years ago, only to gather up the courage to return to school so they can finally earn a diploma.
Other students looking to get into adult education classes are recent immigrants to Massachusetts. Some will now never be able to learn English in class.
The waiting list for English classes reached 20,000 across the state last year, according to one estimate. They want to learn English, an idiosyncratic and difficult-to-learn language.
The numbers are large. In Springfield, for every 100 people who want to learn English as their second or third or fourth language, there is fewer than one available classroom seat. Some of those English language learners drive to schools in Northampton to join classes. Still, the waiting lists are as long as 50 students for some classes.
To those of us who speak English already, beyond empathy, why care about immigrants who speak English poorly or not at all?
Money, that’s why.
If it weren’t for immigrants moving into Massachusetts, the state’s population would be in decline. Instead, between 2014 and 2023, the state’s overall population grew by 4%. And eight in 10 of the newcomers were Hispanic/Latino, many of whom want to learn English.
People come here to work. When they work, they pay taxes.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation found that in the 10 years leading up to 2023, 60% of new jobs in the state were filled by a Hispanic/Latino worker. Many of those workers recently immigrated here.
One barrier to finding work in Massachusetts? Speaking English.
For workers with limited proficiency, learning English just became a harder proposition. The rest of us will be poorer for it.
