[Edling] US Congress bill proposes funding for world languages education

[Robert Troyer via Edling]

Dear Edling subscribers,

If you are in the US or follow education and language education policy in
the US, you may want to know that in February 2025 two congressional
representatives co-sponsored a bill that, if passed, would allocate 15
million dollars each year to support the teaching of languages other than
English in US K-12 schools. The co-sponsors of the bill are Rep. Kiggans
[R-VA-2] and Rep. Panetta [D-CA-19].

In April, four other representatives signed on to co-sponsor the bill,
which is officially titled H.R. 1572, the "World Language Education
Assistance Program Act" (or "World LEAP Act" for short). Here is the link
to the bill's info on congress.gov
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1572/text?s=1&r=1&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22HR1572%22%7D>
.

Given the current stance of the US federal government, which plans to
eliminate the national Department of Education, the entity that would
oversee grants funded by the bill, I am not optimistic that the bill will
even be considered seriously. However, I have written to my state
representative and requested that they support the bill, and I encourage
anyone else who can vote in the US to do so as well.

I am also including a link to a 2017 report by the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences (AAAS) <https://www.amacad.org/publication/americas-languages>,
which was commissioned by the US Congress and titled: “America’s Languages:
Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century." It concluded, among
other things, that the US lags behind the rest of the world in
multilingualism, this is detrimental to the US, and K-12 and university
education needs to require more teaching and learning of languages other
than English. Advice that has not been heeded.

Best regards,
Rob

*Dr. Robert A. Troyer*
Professor of Linguistics
<https://wou.edu/resources/faculty-staff-info/?u=troyerr>
Chair, Department of English Studies <http://www.wou.edu/english/>
Office: BELL 301, Phone: 503-838-9123
Western Oregon University
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