Millions ok’d to translate school forms

Three days before the City Council was expected to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of the Education Equity Act, increasing funds for translation services for parents, the mayor and Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced an agreement that would make these funds permanent and increased this year’s funding from $10 to $12 million.
In 2004, the Department of Education (DOE) created a Translation and Interpretation Unit, and since then it has translated more than 900 different types of documents including report cards, registration forms and other materials for parents who do not speak English.
“By working together with the City Council, we’ve formalized our commitment to non-English speaking parents by establishing a regulation that secures translation and interpretation services for all City schools,” Bloomberg said. “The more we engage our parents, the more successful their children will be.”
Bloomberg vetoed the Education Equity Act in January, but according to his spokesperson Virginia Lam, he agreed with what was in the spirit of the bill, but vetoed it because it was in violation of state law.
However, some City Council members said they were still disappointed with the increased funding for the translation services.
“I think that anything that the city does to dissuade anyone of the notion that they should not learn English immediately is not helpful,” Councilman Peter Vallone said. “Our language should unite us, not divide us.”
Councilman Dennis Gallagher, who spoke out strongly against the Equity Act, said that he was not sure if the council would have overridden the bill if they did not reach this agreement.
“As time went on, I think people started to recognize that $20 million is a massive amount, and that bill was a misguided piece of legislation,” he said.
Prior to September 2004, no unit dedicated to translation and interpretation existed.