That long sigh of relief that you heard earlier this week was mine, as the close of the 2009 session of the Texas Legislature removed a huge weight from my shoulders. Following the actions of the Legislature is like watching a hockey game from the top floor of a neighboring skyscraper: You know something is going on, but you have no way to learn what.  The good news is that the Lege apparently didn't pass any xenophobic legislation aimed at our students, and did not take advantage of the recession to slash education spending.  Students are not more likely to show up in your classes with a concealed Glock.  Nothing happened to make me feel the need to call each of you in the middle of the night with a list of your Senators and Representatives.

Therefore, we can turn our attention to a much more visible target, the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch of the Federal Government.  Here, the outlook is considerably less grim than for the Texas Lege, where inertia is usually a positive sign.  Congress is under fairly rational and progressive leadership, so we should don't have to fear too many surprise attacks on our profession.

Currently, TESOL is watching two pieces of legislation that bear directly upon our students:

S 729 (with companion bill HR 1751), called the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act (DREAM - don't you just love these acronyms?!), returns to the states the authority to give resident status to some undocumented alien minors.  This authority was used before 1996 to allow children of undocumented immigrants, who in many cases had lived in the US since infancy, to enroll in public colleges and universities as residents rather than out-of-state students.  Proponents of the DREAM Act claim that its passage will send a clear message to immigrants and native-born residents alike that we value education for all the residents of our country.

The DREAM Act, introduced in the House on March 26, 2009, is currently referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness, chaired by Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, (D. Tex) from the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  On the Senate side, S 729 was introduced on the same day by Senator Richard Durbin (D., Ill) and referred to the Judiciary Committee.  If you would like to read comments on the House bill by its chief sponsor, Red. Howard Berman (D. Calif), click here.  If you would like to express your opinion on this proposed legislation, Check out TESOL's Advocacy Action Center's site here.

The Families Learning and Understanding English Together Act (HR 1224), introduced on Feb. 26 by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D. Ariz), would provide funding for organizations which promote family literacy, including ESL.  According to the NCSDAE (National Council of State Directors of Adult Education), current state and federal funding for adult literacy education is sufficient for only 3% of the 93,000,000 Americans in need of such learning. Rep. Grijalva's proposal will help to alleviate this serious shortfall, and will promote that old proverb "The family that studies ESL together prospers together." To express your views on HR 1224, click here.

TESOL has two resources that are very useful for grassroots advocates:

1. At http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/seccss.asp?CID=32&DID=37, you can see all the positions taken by the Board of TESOL on public issues.

Go to http://capwiz.com/tesol/home/ and read about the latest legislative alert: support.

• Write an informative, persuasive letter about your issue. Your congressperson and senators receive tons of mail every day, so your communication needs to be well-crafted to be effective. This means paying attention to the following points:

o Don’t make your letter too long: 1 page, 2 at the very longest.

o Don’t be abusive or threatening: it is such a short distance from the staff person’s chair to the waste can.

o Do your best to appeal to the national interest and the interest of the section represented by your legislator. Facilitating entry by F-1 students to the US is good for the U.S. (and Texas) . Of course, it is also good for Kazakhstan, but your senator doesn’t represent Kazakhstan.
Here again, the Capwiz folks at the Advocacy Action Center can be very helpful. For each Action Alert, they develop a template for writing an effective letter on the issue. By following this template, and modifying it to fit your circumstances, you can develop a hard-hitting e-mail or printed letter on your issue. (For a pertinent example of this template, enter your zip code in the box on the above-cited Action Alert page regarding the ACTION act).

• Don’t forget to follow all applicable laws and regulations regarding legislative communication! Specifically, do not

o Use letterhead stationary of your institution to write your letter;

o Use your institution’s e-mail server to send e-mail communications to legislators;

o Do your advocacy activity on your institution’s time, while you are at work.

Finally, stay in touch with the Advocacy Blog of TexTESOL-IV (http://textesol-iv-advocate.blogspot.com/) to get information about issues that affect our profession here in Southeast Texas.