Parents Oppose Prince George's County Plan to Cut Language Immersion

Prince George’s County Public Schools is proposing cuts that could eliminate or sharply scale back Chinese, Spanish and French immersion pathways K–12, and families say the changes would begin immediately for some programs. Chief Academic Officer Judith White notified families on Jan. 23 that the district had reviewed enrollment trends and proposed program changes; district leaders met with parents on Feb. 3 and a Board of Education hearing drew dozens of speakers on Feb. 12 asking the Board to pause a Feb. 26 vote.

The list of programs named by parents and program leaders includes the Paint Branch Elementary Chinese immersion boundary program in College Park, the Spanish immersion program at Capitol Heights Elementary, middle‑school immersion at Greenbelt Middle School, and the county’s only high‑school immersion pathway based at Largo High School. Change.org petition language and advocacy groups assert the FY27 proposal would phase out high‑school immersion programs and stop new admissions to the immersion high‑school next year; a petition on Change.org had 1,481 signers at the time of reporting.

Parents and staff described immediate and long-term consequences if the proposal is approved. Paint Branch Academic Dean Pei‑Hsuan Liu said she wants the district to consider alternatives: “I want them to consider if we can size down to another program such as [a] lottery or just make the program smaller. Because once you eliminate our program, there's no Chinese immersion in PG.” Paint Branch parent and PTA Secretary Alexandra Tyukavina noted the school is a Title I campus of about 500 students and warned of broad community impact: “Our school Paint Branch Elementary is a Title 1 school. It consists of mostly low income families. It's around 500 kids, so it's going to have a big impact on our community in College Park and across PG County.”

Parents at the Feb. 12 Board hearing asked elected officials to protect feeder pipelines to secondary schools. College Park council member Holly Simmons told the Board, “I respectfully urge the board to amend the proposed budget to maintain Paint Branch's program and its feeder programs as full Chinese immersion programs.” Parent Theresa Smith warned that eliminating secondary immersion would undo families’ long-term plans: cutting secondary immersion is “erasing the destination we have been working towards since kindergarten.”

District officials framed the proposal as part of a larger budget challenge. PGCPS is addressing an approximately $150 million budget gap and officials are seeking to cut about $100 million while requesting an additional $50 million from the county to close the shortfall. The district has cited a $1.9 million cost figure for the Chinese immersion program; Senior Public Information Specialist Lynn McCawley said the interim superintendent’s proposed budget “will move on to become the board’s budget before it is presented to the county - so changes could be made to his proposal for immersion programs during the budget development process.”

Advocacy organizations and parents have pushed alternative proposals in public testimony and online appeals, warning that elementary immersion could be transitioned to a lower‑intensity “World Language” model with far fewer contact hours. The Change.org petition asks the Board to reverse the decision, engage parents and educators in a transparent consultation process, and preserve K–12 biliteracy pipelines. With a Feb. 26 Board vote pending, speakers at hearings have urged the Board to hold additional public hearings and delay action so district officials can provide program-level timelines, detailed cost breakdowns and enrollment data.