White House Rejects Federal Aid for Black
        English Courses

        By JAMES BENNET

        WASHINGTON -- Joining a rising chorus of criticism, the Clinton
        administration Tuesday formally rejected the idea that black
        English, or Ebonics is a distinct language, saying that programs based on it
        were ineligible for federal support as bilingual education.

        The administration issued its view, in the form of a clarification by the
        Department of Education, in response to a decision last week by the school
        board in Oakland, Calif., to recognize black English as a separate language
        with roots in Africa.

        "Elevating black English to the status of a language is not the way to raise
        standards of achievement in our schools and for our students," Education
        Secretary Richard Riley said in a statement. "The administration's policy is
        that Ebonics is a nonstandard form of English and not a foreign language."

        Tuesday's move amounted to a pre-emptive strike by the administration.
        While Oakland officials had left open the possibility of seeking federal
        money for bilingual education, they have not done so. And Tuesday,
        Darolyn Davis, a spokeswoman for the Oakland Unified School District,
        denied that they ever intended to.

        "The school district has never, and did not intend to, go after federal funds,
        bilingual funding," Ms. Davis said.

        She added that the district's intentions had been widely misinterpreted. "The
        goal and the intent of the district's policy are to insure that every child in
        Oakland speaks, writes and comprehends standard American English," she
        said. "It would be a crime, it really would be a crime, to not teach students
        standard American English."

        The decision by the Oakland board has been widely criticized, with
        liberals like the Rev. Jesse Jackson lining up with conservatives like
        William Bennett to deplore it as lowering expectations for black children.

        On Sunday, Jackson called the decision "an unacceptable surrender,
        borderlining on disgrace." The National Association for the Advancement
        of Colored People has also opposed classifying black English as a language
        apart.

        The White House did not hesitate to reinforce Riley's message Tuesday.
        "It's a big mistake," Rahm Emanuel, an adviser to President Clinton on
        domestic policy, said of the Oakland decision. "Just when the debate
        around the country is how do we raise standards, this is going the other
        way."

        David Frank, a department spokesman, said that public speculation about
        whether Ebonics programs might qualify for federal financing had prompted
        the clarification. "There's been a lot of interest in the press about it, a lot of
        stories in the last week," Frank said.

        In 1981, Ronald Reagan's Department of Education issued the same ruling,
        calling black English "a form of English and not a separate and distinct
        language." It was not immediately clear how easily the department could
        have reversed that view, had it chosen to.

        As the Reagan ruling suggests, academics and teachers have for decades
        debated whether black English should be recognized as its own tongue, a
        question charged with issues of race and class.

        In Oakland, administrators hoped that by recognizing the speech patterns of
        students speaking black English, teachers could better instruct them in
        standard English, said Ms. Davis, the spokeswoman. While details of the
        black English program remain to be worked out, teachers might receive
        merit pay for studying black English and using their new expertise in their
        lessons.

        While some specialists fear that classifying black English as a separate
        language could stigmatize children who speak it, others argue that too little
        has been done to counter the linguistic legacies of slavery, segregation and
        the inner city.

        Under the fiscal 1997 budget, children who speak foreign languages are
        eligible for $262 million in Department of Education money for bilingual
        education. While the overwhelming majority who qualify speak Spanish,
        more than 100 languages are represented in the federal programs, said
        Delia Pompa, the director of the office of Bilingual Education and Minority
        Languages Affairs.

        Ms. Pompa said that federal grants could be used to train teachers, to hire
        teachers' aides who speak the foreign language, for developing a
        curriculum, or other purposes.