ECTACO Info | We need to move education forward, not back

Rachel Brougham
www.petoskeynews.com

...Our lawmakers and business experts keep talking about how students need to be prepared to compete in a global economy, so why would we take away an important component -- foreign language? To take advantage of job opportunities, employees need to be able to communicate with the rest of the world. Most European students take one, if not more, foreign language courses beginning in elementary school. Yet in the U.S., many graduate from high school and even college without ever studying another language.

"It's ironic that the state board of education tells me how important it is to maintain high standards, while the legislature is looking for ways to lighten the load. The conundrum is the legislature isn't able to find adequate ways of maintaining the funding for those high standards," John Scholten, superintendent of Petoskey Public Schools told the News-Review last month in regard to the bills seeking to change the requirements.

I've heard the argument that since we live in America, everyone else should learn English if they want to live or work here. So what happens in 2043 when the Census Bureau says Hispanics will be the majority? ...

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