WITESOL is committed to advocating for the rights of English Learners.  The Advocacy Committee Chair is appointed by the WITESOL Board and is dedicated to furthering WITESOL’s efforts to communicate with local and state policymakers and local government.  The Advocacy Chair for 2024 is Melanie Schneider. 

2024 TESOL Advocacy Days – Advocacy Chair Report

I spent two days in Washington, D.C. on July 22-23 inspired by educators across the country as we gathered on Capitol Hill to advocate for multilingual learners (MLs) and their families. Our message was simple: to support bills and educational funding that promote education and work opportunities for teachers, MLs, and their families.  To help prepare for our Hill visits, the week before we had listened to online presentations on ML-related issues by leaders in OELA, OCTAE, the Department of Education, the Migrant Policy Institute, the Presidents Alliance of Higher Education, and others. On July 23, we met with our U.S. Representatives and Senators to advocate in-person for selected bills and educational funding.

Each advocate selected 2-3 legislative bills and pushed for educational funding that were priorities for TESOL International. I chose to advocate for two bills: 1) the Reaching English Learners Act (RELA, HR 3605, introduced by Rep. Grijalva (D-AZ-7) and 2) the Supporting Providers of English Language Learning Act (SPELL, HR 460, introduced by Rep. Espaillat (D-NY-13).  RELA establishes a grant program, under Title II of the Higher Education Act (HEA), to prepare future teachers to instruct ELs to achieve at high levels in early childhood programs through secondary school. It establishes partnerships between 1) certain institutions of higher education and 2) high-need local school districts or high-need early childhood education programs. SPELL extends educational loan forgiveness to teachers of ELs, bilingual learners, or dual language learners so that they would be on par with STEM and Special Education teachers who, as part of HEA, already receive some loan forgiveness.

We heard time and again that our voices as constituents matter on the Hill.  I am very grateful to WITESOL and to TESOL International for their support, which allowed me to attend Advocacy Days this year and begin to establish a relationship with our U.S. legislators.

–Melanie Schneider

WITESOL Advocacy Book Club