Congressional Daily Record
This section focuses on legislation moving through Congress. It mentions legislation such as SPELL Act, committees such as Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, members such as Alejandro Padilla.
Issued
September 30, 2026
senate side of the record
People
1
Linked members mentioned in this section
Legislation
1
Bills and resolutions linked from this section
Committees
1
Committees connected to this section
Senate Holds
0
No hold activity linked here
Source Document
Connected Data
People mentioned
Bills and resolutions
Source Control
Reader mode is for comprehension. The linked government PDF is the official published source.
Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextBy Mr. PADILLA (for himself and Mr. Kim):
S. 5634. A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide additional amounts of loan forgiveness to teachers of English learners and teachers of bilingual and dual language immersion students, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the Supporting Providers of English Language Learning, SPELL, Act, which I introduced today.
in the country. Across the United States, about 10 percent of all publc school students are English learners. In California alone, nearly 19 percent of all public school students identify as English learners. Yet we are facing a devastating shortage of teachers with the skills needed to support these students. If we do not address this shortage, the achievement gap for this vulnerable group of students will continue to grow.
and unique teacher strategies. If we are going to meet the needs of these students, we need to facilitate the training and retention of high-quality teachers for our English learners.
$17,500 in Federal student loan forgiveness for teachers of English learners, bilingual students, or dual immersion students in high-need schools. This would match the level of loan forgiveness offered to teachers of other in-demand subjects such as math, science, and special education.
teachers, we can help incentivize a greater number of passionate and highly qualified teachers to enter and stay in the classroom.
country with the most English learners and as an English learner myself, I am proud to work with my colleagues to push forward legislation to support our teachers. I want to thank Representative Espaillat for introducing this bill in the House, and I hope our colleagues will join us in supporting our English learner teachers and students.