Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) led 21 Senators in expressing their alarm at the Trump Administration's attacks against English Language Learners (ELLs). In their letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Senators condemned the Administration's unlawful transfer of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor and demanded the Trump Administration restore longstanding guidance to support ELLs.

The Department of Education Organization Act that established OELA makes clear that its director must report directly to the Secretary of Education. The lawmakers emphasized that OELA is charged with helping ELLs achieve English proficiency and academic success, and the Administration's unlawful transfer of the Office to the Labor Department, which lacks the necessary expertise, staff, and capacity, would create extreme bureaucratic challenges. This move will severely harm states, school districts, and educators alike.

"We are outraged by the continued attacks the Trump Administration has undertaken on English learners, including the recent scattering of some of the Department of Education's core responsibilities across several agencies that lack the expertise, staff, and capacity to protect student rights or support student learning," wrote the Senators. "Even as your Departments take away tools for educators to better serve English learners, the law is clear: all students acquiring English as a second language have the right to an education."

"Every child deserves access to a quality education and an opportunity to succeed, regardless of what language they speak at home. By limiting support for English learners and their families, the Trump Administration has put students, states, and our nation at a disadvantage," continued the Senators. "We demand you immediately reinstate the 2015 guidance, reestablish a strong OELA within the Department of Education, and continue consistent research, funding, staffing, and other support for English learners. States, school districts, and schools must comply with all applicable statutes and Supreme Court case law, and it is imperative that they continue to have this critical, practical guidance in place to ensure that the five million English learners receive access to the same high-quality education as all students."

Across the United States, over 5 million schoolchildren, one in 10 students at K-12 public schools, are considered English learners, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens. In the Silver State, 67,000 students have this designation, over 13 percent of all Nevada students.

The full text of the Senators' letter can be found here.

Senator Cortez Masto has consistently fought to ensure all Nevada students, including ELLs, have access to high-quality public educations. She has introduced bipartisan legislation to address the shortage of teachers certified to teach ELLs. She has called out President Trump's attempts to eliminate the Department of Education and pushed the administration to end its chaotic and dangerous immigration enforcement near schools. She strongly condemned the Department of Education's decision to defund grants that support Nevada's universities. When the Trump administration withheld nearly seven billion dollars in federal funding for public schools, she urged the Department of Education to restore the funding. Her guest at this year's State of the Union Address was an elementary school principal from Sparks.

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