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

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — 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.

Rodríguez said that she and two of her three children never had the opportunity to learn English, and that she would be delighted if her grandson became fluent: “To work and to travel, they’re going to need it.”

Few observers deny the value of learning English, but critics say imposing it as the only language of instruction in Puerto Rican Head Start centers would be insulting and a costly logistical nightmare.

“We are not talking about two languages,” said Zaida Cordero Huertas, president of Puerto Rico’s Association of Parents of Head Start. “We are talking about communicating in a single language, and we would lose our cultural identity.”

Across the U.S., Head Start serves roughly 700,000 low-income children, a third of whom speak a language other than English at home. In Puerto Rico, federally reported data show, 99% of children enrolled in Head Start come from Spanish-speaking homes.

The English-only rule, which includes a limited exception for Tribal-language instruction, is part of a sweeping overhaul of Head Start standards that President Donald Trump proposed in August. The administration plans to issue finalized rules after reviewing public feedback, though the timeline is unclear.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, stressed that providers can continue to communicate with families in their home languages and have the option to pursue waivers. In response to a request for comment, HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard stressed the importance of English instruction.

“Head Start is designed to prepare young children to be ready to enter school, and providing a firm foundation in the English language is a critical part of that preparation,” she said.

Head Start teacher Desirée Vega González said she worries about the impact on her students, all of whom speak Spanish. “It’s very important for children to express their emotions,” she said. “If we switch ... it would be more complicated.”

Research shows that using children’s home languages can help them learn English. It also allows them to explore concepts in subjects like math and science while they’re still developing their English skills.

Francisco J. Nazario Marrero, a Head Start program manager in the town of Dorado, said he worries about the impact on children who need speech therapy — they could receive the therapy in Spanish only to return to English at their preschool.

“It would lead to further delays,” he said.

Educators warn of staffing shortages and steep costs

English was heavily pushed in Puerto Rico’s public education system for the first half of the 20th century until the island’s first democratically elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, ended the practice.

In 1991, Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón declared Spanish the island’s sole official language. A couple of years later, Gov. Pedro Rosselló made both English and Spanish the island’s official languages.

English is still associated with a push to Americanize Puerto Rico, where the status of the island’s relationship to the U.S. remains a focus of local politics. Today, most locals are proficient only in Spanish; roughly three-quarters of Puerto Rico residents aged 5 and older say they do not speak English “very well,” according to U.S. Census data.

Against that backdrop, local Head Start leaders fear the proposal could upend staffing. Leaders worry many teachers would leave rather than learn a new language, particularly those nearing the end of their careers, worsening already-high turnover rates.

It would be “next to impossible” to recruit bilingual staff in some rural communities, said Melanie Hartzog, president and CEO of The New York Foundling, which operates 29 Puerto Rican Head Start centers. Centers also would be competing with the higher-paying tourism and healthcare industries.

Beyond those challenges, Hartzog said the proposal is troubling for an island where the primary language is Spanish.

“It’s not about us saying ‘no’ to English. We have to be respectful to the island. Culturally, Spanish is the primary language,” she said.

Several Head Start supporters recently met with Puerto Rico’s governor and legislators to discuss their concerns, including a new cap on administrative expenses, which the administration wants to lower from 15% to 5% of total program costs.

Cordero Huertas, the Head Start parents association president, said she asked about how students’ families could meaningfully engage with their children’s education if all instruction is in English. Someone suggested they could learn English online, but many are already stretched thin, and chronic power outages on the island persist.

“There are some solutions,” she said. “But they’re not a magic wand.”

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Associated Press writer Alia Wong in Washington contributed to this report.