Association of Mexican American American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2010 School Finance and English Language Learners: A Legislative Perspective Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos

The state of California educates over six million or twelve percent of the nation’s student population. Of the six million students, over three million of California students are enrolled in free/reduced lunch programs. Approximately three million are Latino and 1.5 million are classifi ed as English Language Learners (ELLs). Of these, eighty-fi ve percent are Spanish speaking (CDE, 2009). The clear demographic trend in California is an increase of students in poverty, of Latino students and of Spanish speaking English Language Learners (ELL), at the same time that we are experiencing a decrease in White students (CDE, 2009). For example, the White student population was forty percent in 1995 and dropped to thirty percent in 2005, while the Latino population increased from thirty-eight percent to forty-seven percent during this same time period. English Language Learners are signifi cantly underperforming in math and reading compared to White students in all grade levels (CDE, 2009). The achievement gap actually continues to increase the longer that students are in school. The U.S. Census data (2000) reveals that only approximately 50 out of 100 Latinos graduate from high school, only 10 out of 100 graduate from college, a mere four out of 100 receive a graduate degree, and less than a half percent graduate with a doctorate. These trends create major challenges for policy makers and advocates. Most critical is examining the potential causes of the achievement gap. Consequently, we need to understand the school fi nance policy tha