Foreign language funding being threaten

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a proposal, HR 1, which con-tains $100 billion in cuts from the President’s FY 2011 budget request. To reach the number the House cut billions through reductions, rescissions, and eliminations. They wanted to pass this to help prevent the government to shut down. In these categories includes the elimination of the For-eign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) within the Department of Education. For K-12 foreign language innovation and best practices FLAP is the only source of federal education funding. FLAP uses 26.9 million dollars in funding to help develop programs in critical lan-guages to help support our economic and national securi-ty interests and prepare our graduates to compete in the 21st century. On average The US Department of Education awards 25-35 FLAP grants each year to state and local education agencies. Friday, March 4th, 2011 the Senate Democratic Leadership introduced their version of a seven-month Continuing Resolution which would maintain FLAP funding at the current levels. In contrast, the House-passed CR would cut $51 billion more than the Senate measure, with the vast majority of House cuts coming from non-defense spending. The Senate will vote on HR 1—the House proposal and the Democratic alternative, on Tuesday March 8th. Although neither is expected to get the 60 votes needed to advance, the votes will set the parameters for the upcoming budget negotiations and determine the final level for FLAP funding this year. In most countries learning a second language is a high priority but in American language education offerings contrast markedly with those coun-tries. In the European Union 21 out of the 31 countries require nine years of language studies. Industrialized coun-tries start teaching the worlds languages in grades K-5. In 2007 a report from the National Academy of Sciences warned, “The pervasive lack of knowledge of foreign cultures and languages threatens the security of the United States as well as its ability to compete in the global marketplace and produce an in-formed citizenry.”