Linda Ríos es muy amigable. Sonríe todo el tiempo. Es alta y bonita.

So who is this Linda, you ask?

Linda, a 16-year-old student in San Antonio, Texas, is the main character in El sueño de Linda, a book written by Tiffany Haney for first-year learners of Spanish. The book is published by Teacher’s Discovery.

And I’m trying to read the darned thing.

I’m not sure how much Spanish I’m learning with this exercise. But I am discovering just how hard it is to master another language.

I’m also gaining a greater appreciation for the immense challenges facing millions of English language learners (ELLs) struggling in our nation’s schools.

These are challenges that school boards ignore at our nation’s peril. In 2000, there were 2 million ELL students; today, there are 5 million. By 2025, one in four students will come from homes where English is not the primary language.

How well will our schools be prepared to educate them? That’s hard to say. Today, the nation’s public schools are doing great things in teaching these students English and raising their academic performance. Yet, the challenges are huge, so the achievement gap of these students remains disturbing—as does their dropout rate.

I wish I had some brilliant advice to give the nation’s school boards. I know they must deal with limited resources, shortages of bilingual teachers, and a host of mandates that also demand their attention.

But I also know that schools are struggling today to serve ELL students—and that doesn’t bode well for their ability to handle greater numbers in the years ahead.

Yet, they must. If America’s schools fall short, our nation will have a growing population that’s linguistically, culturally, and politically isolated. And that’s not a healthy situation for a robust democracy.

So all I can do is offer a reminder that the issue needs your attention. School boards need to look harder at the needs of ELL students. And state and federal lawmakers need to pony up the resources to help local schools meet these needs.

In short, using my modest understanding of Spanish: El futuro está viniendo.

Del Stover, Senior Editor