ELL News Headlines

Senate and House Republican leaders have agreed to abandon many of the controversial proposals that higher-education leaders and students had rallied to thwart, according to congressional aides. Under the agreement, tuition waivers received by graduate students remain tax-free, students can still deduct loan interest payments and bonds that colleges use for construction stay interest-free.

Andi Sharma is a senior policy analyst for the government of Manitoba's Northern Healthy Foods Initiative. In this piece about losing heritage languages, she writes, "It's a very odd feeling, the moment you realize you've lost your connection to your heritage. That moment happened for me when I was 11."

Nury Castillo was just 10 years old when she first arrived in the United States. A petite, black-haired girl with big eyes, Castillo barely knew how to undo her own braids, let alone learn to speak English. Of that time in her life, Castillo vividly remembers the bedroom she shared with her parents and two sisters, in her aunt's home in Indiana. Castillo's parents emigrated from Peru in the 1970s, in search of a better life. Castillo's experience as an immigrant, including the challenges she faced and the assimilation process to living in the U.S., is all chronicled in her new book, '3,585 Miles to be an American Girl.'

Ranferi Avilez is meeting friends for a late lunch. It’s unseasonably hot in Houston for mid-October, but instead of spending his Saturday as he normally does, pouring cold brews and squirting whipped cream on iced caramel macchiatos, the 18-year-old, who received his work permit via DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is doing something special for himself: He is taking a day off. Finances are a big reason so few of these young people go to college, but the steep and rising costs — exacerbated by the fact that most states require undocumented immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition at public universities, even if they have lived and paid taxes in the state for years — is just one of the obstacles these teens face. Many must also help support their families. They usually lack mentors to help them prepare for college, even when — as is often the case — they would be the first in their families to go.

Julie Wollman is the President of Widener University, and she writes, "Voices that are largely missing are those of the college and university employees who gain the most from the provision that allows their dependents to receive tax-free tuition remission. These are the people without whom our campuses could not operate. They are the campus safety officers, maintenance staff, housekeepers, food service workers and administrative assistants who would otherwise be unable to afford access to an education of the quality that is available to them through their workplaces. Taxing this tuition remission would raise taxable income so significantly that it would shut down access to countless young people who may lack wealth but who have no shortage of ambition or drive to succeed."

An eastern South Dakota city has seen an increase in the number of English language learners in the last few years. More than 620 English language learners joined the Sioux Falls Schools District last year and a similar number is expected this school year, the Argus Leader reported . The district has more than 2,300 students classified as English language learners this year. About 10 percent of the district's students aren't native English speakers.

A jittery group of middle-schoolers is about to start the first day of classes since September, when Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico and totally disrupted the island's school system. he vast majority of the island's public schools — more than 98 percent — are open for at least part of the day, according to Puerto Rico's Department of Education. But a small number of schools in Puerto Rico are still not holding classes. Before today, that included the students of Liberata Iraldo. The middle school building they usually attend is being used as a shelter for people who lost their homes in the storm.

More than two months had passed since he'd last seen his mother, through a glass barrier in an immigration detention center in Williamsburg, Va. The U.S. government deported Liliana Cruz Mendez to El Salvador before her son, Steve Bermudez, finished fourth grade. Now it was August, and Steve and his little sister, Danyca — both U.S. citizens born in Virginia — were taking their first airplane ride to join her, leaving a small Falls Church apartment where their framed birth announcements hang on the living room wall.

When the Sept. 30th deadline approached for reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, no one seriously thought that Congress would let the bipartisan-supported health plan expire.  But now, more than two months later, the program still has not been funded by Congress, and no funding plan is on the immediate horizon. Supporters hoped that long-term funding for the program might be appended to a short-term bill passed on Dec. 7 to keep the government running, but that didn't happen. Instead, congressional leaders are signaling that they will allow some unused federal money to be shifted to states whose CHIP funding is running out the soonest. That buys a little more time, but it doesn't help states, which are now wondering whether they should start notifying families that their child's health care program may be going away, or hold off on such notifications in hopes that Congress will come up with the money soon. 

Charmaine Jackson, who grew up on a Navajo reservation but did not learn to speak Navajo, studied the language in college. Today she and friend Shawna L. Begay, who also grew up on a reservation without learning to speak the language, are creating the first-ever Navajo puppets TV show, geared to preschool students and using puppets designed by Navajo artist Jason Barnes.