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Language skills soar in young Spanish speakers School-age children from Spanish-speaking households in San Diego County and throughout California are gaining English fluency at record rates, while fluency among adults – especially seniors – is slipping, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2000 to 2005, San Diego County's percentage of children ages 5 to 17 from Spanish-speaking households who speak English “very well” has jumped to 71 percent from 60 percent. Meanwhile, English fluency among adult Spanish speakers dropped from 50 percent in 1990 and 2000 to 48 percent in 2005. Statewide, English fluency rates among Spanish-speakers across all age groups largely mirror those in San Diego County. Numbers on language ability, experts say, can be explained by both a big push among school districts to boost English fluency and larger, more established immigrant communities in San Diego County where adults have an increasingly easier time getting by with only basic English, or none at all. This phenomenon has demographers, community leaders and school officials at once rejoicing and wringing their hands. Fluency will give Latino youths better chances at college degrees and good-paying jobs, experts say. But their parents and grandparents, by not learning English, run the risk of becoming more isolated and stuck at the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.
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