OAKLAND, Calif. — The seven-member Oakland School Board voted unanimously on January 15 to support an amended version of the controversial Ebonics resolution that it originally passed on December 18, 1996. With the amendment process complete, the board and others in the school district hope to be removed from the national media spotlight.
The newly-amended resolution upholds the district’s intent to implement an academic program aimed at helping African American students acquire and master standard English language skills. It also continues to recognize Ebonics — also referred to in the resolution as African Language Systems and Pan African Communication Behaviors — as not “merely” dialects of English.
Excised from the resolution are: statements referring to African Language Systems being “genetically based;” statements implying that Ebonics is the “primary language” of all African American students; and wording that led readers of the initial resolution to conclude that students would be taught in Ebonics.
The amended resolution retains the original draft’s adoption of the report, recommendations, and policy statement submitted by the District’s African American Task Force.
Oakland remained enough in the spotlight to be the focus of a Senate subcommittee hearing late last month on the topic of Ebonics. The hearing was part of an exploration into a congressional proposal to cut federal aid to those school systems that have programs in Ebonics.
Education Secretary Richard Riley has ruled out using federal bilingual education money to help the Oakland Unified School District. But the district gets about $14 million in other funds, some used to train teachers to educate children with other native tongues.
Oakland officials told the Senate subcommittee that if pupils comfortable only in Spanish or Cambodian get specially trained teachers, Black children who speak Ebonics should, too.
