BOUDREAUX TO MAKE CASE FOR EBONICS : `RATIONAL' DISCUSSION SOUGHT.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

A day after Oakland schools declared Ebonics a distinct language, the Los Angeles Board of Education's lone African-American member stood before the microphones and TV cameras to announce her own, similar plans.

Her enthusiasm evident, Barbara Boudreaux explained how she wanted to expand a program that uses Ebonics to teach English to African-American students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

That, however, was before Boudreaux went on national TV with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, debating whether African-American English was a language and whether its use would hurt or help students learn English.

That also was before Latino educators and activists publicly opposed her proposal, out of concern that it could drain money set aside to teach Latino students English in bilingual classes.

``The word Ebonics frightened the whole nation,'' Boudreaux said. ``How could one, seven-letter word frighten so many people? I hope we can now sit down and talk about it rationally.''

On Monday, Boudreaux will get another chance to explain her proposal when she introduces it as a motion to the Board of Education.

And now Boudreaux's support is much less certain.

When polled last week, three board members - Julie Korenstein, David Tokofsky and board President Jeff Horton - said that they will vote against the motion. Mark Slavkin and George Kiriyama could not be reached for comment.

Boudreaux's closest ally on the board, Vickie Castro, said she will vote for the motion if she is allowed to amend it so that all students - not just African-Americans - would receive the same, special instruction in English.

But, Castro noted, her tentative support comes only after 14 drafts of the motion. With pressure from some Latino activists and educators, Castro said she too has found herself in a politically sensitive situation.

``I see a need among African-American students,'' she said, ``but I see the same need among the Latino and Asian and Filipino populations. Some of those students use nonstandard English that looks a lot like Ebonics to me.''

What Castro and Boudreaux agree upon is that the debate over African-American English and its utility in the classroom must be done above the racial divide.

``This is not about division. It's about working together for children,'' Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux's three-page motion calls for the district to earmark more money for the expansion of its Language Development Program for African-American Students.

The $3-million-a-year program trains teaches to recognize ``Black English'' as a separate language, in an effort to help them teach African-American students standard English. It now is taught in 31 schools, none of them in the San Fernando Valley.

Through the course, teachers are trained never to criticize students who speak in African-American English or demean them. Instead, students are taught to translate the language as it is spoken at home into standard English.

Boudreaux wants the district's program to reach beyond the 25,000 students it serves now - perhaps to all LAUSD schools.

``Systemic, that's the key word,'' Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux's motion also calls for more stringent training for all teachers in the program. Her motion would require those teachers to have the same training as instructors of other limited-English speakers.

Exactly how much the expansion would cost is unclear.

For Boudreaux's colleagues, the cost is less worrisome than whether the program has been proven to work well enough to expand.

``I'm concerned it hasn't been. I'm very disappointed,'' Castro said. ``I would like to get more in-depth information about the program, to have presentations about the schools where it's in place. It needs analysis.''

While Castro said that will not stop her from voting for the motion, it is too large a question mark for other board members.

``We can't put more money into this particular program until there's an evaluation of the program,'' Korenstein said.

Tokofsky said the district does a poor job of evaluating the effectiveness of all its programs, not just language programs for African-American students.

``I'm disinclined to increase the amount of money into the program until the superintendent demonstrates there's a yield in output in students' literacy,'' Tokofsky said.

Horton said he has supported the language program in concept because he believes it serves an important need, but has financial reservations.

``At this point, I'm not willing to take money from any other program to expand this program,'' Horton said.

Horton said he would consider an expansion of the language program in the next budget, but only after the program was evaluated. He believes that special instruction in English should be available to all students who need it.

In Oakland, the debate has centered around whether Ebonics - a marriage of ``ebony'' and ``phonics'' - is a unique language, a dialect of English or just bad English.

Boudreaux has vacillated between calling Ebonics a language and a dialect. Her motion calls Ebonics a language that ``resulted from the convergence of West and Niger-Congo African linguistic structure and English lexicon.''

It does not, however, call for the district to recognize Ebonics as a distinct language.

Korenstein said it's all a matter of semantics.

``Whether it's a language is not important to me,'' she said. ``I know students speak Black English, and the most important thing to focus on is getting them to speak proper, standard English.''

Korenstein believes that Oakland's underlying motive for recognizing Ebonics was money. Oakland school officials have said they might ask for federal money to teach Ebonics in the same way that Latinos are taught English.

``If you classify it as a language, you might qualify for bilingual funds,'' Korenstein said.

Federal education officials have made it clear that a language program centered on Ebonics would never qualify for bilingual grants.

And Boudreaux is adamant that an expansion of LAUSD's language program would not come at the expense of other language programs. Yet her motion calls for the district's superintendent and board to identify and allocate ``existing and additional funds necessary'' to expand the program.

Delaine Eastin, the state's superintendent of public instruction, said no district will get state or federal money for Ebonics-based programs.

``School districts get money for children with special needs who are disadvantaged, but they should not get bilingual money,'' Eastin said. ``We will not be directing bilingual money to Los Angeles for Ebonics.''

Monday's board meeting is not likely to produce an immediate decision on the fate of Ebonics in Los Angeles schools. Instead, it probably will be referred to a board committee for more discussion and return to the board another day.