Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico balks at Trump’s proposal to require English at Head Start centers

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The only English words 4-year-old Alaisha Sandoval knows are courtesy of “Peppa Pig,” but that could soon change. The Trump administration is proposing that Head Start programs teach exclusively in English, rejecting the federal early-childhood program’s practice of incorporating the languages students speak at home. Alaisha’s father, Hansel Alejandro Sandoval, smiled when he heard the news: The policy, he said, would help open his daughter’s world.

Not all parents and advocates are so optimistic about the change in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with more than 700 Head Start centers. English and Spanish are the territory’s official languages, but most of its 3.2 million residents say they do not speak English fluently.

Educators and Puerto Rican officials warn the change would undermine children’s connection to their language and culture — and would require costly materials and teacher training on a Caribbean island already struggling with a scarcity of resources and educators. “There are going to be a lot of teachers who are going to resign or embrace retirement,” warned Eddie Torres Vázquez, president of the Puerto Rico Friends of Head Start Association, which is seeking a waiver to exempt Puerto Rico from the English-only proposal. Roughly 25,000 children across Puerto Rico attend Head Start centers, which provide free preschool education, health services and support programs for low-income families.

Most of the island’s centers already take a bilingual approach, and no one is opposed to continuing those efforts, Torres said. “Learning a second language opens doors,” he said, but he worries about the impact of making it compulsory. Less than 10% of the island’s Head Start teachers are fluent in English, he said.

“Puerto Rico would be the geographical area most affected by this change.” The administration says the language requirement would apply only to instruction, not to noneducational conversations or parent interactions. Critics say the proposal is insulting Loud clacks from a domino game echoed through a working-class neighborhood of San Juan one recent afternoon as families picked up their children from a local Head Start center. Among them was Monín Rodríguez, who said she heard about the English-only proposal on the news.

“I love the idea,” she said in Spanish, glancing at her sleepy 2-year-old grandson.