Legislative+Alerts


 * Posted June 25**

[|Ask legislators to support the Holt-Lautenberg Bill!]

[|Save Title VI Funding]


 * posted June 10, 2011:**

Uploaded below is the proposed full Education and the Workforce Committee Report on HR 1891, the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act. This was reported favorably out of Committee on May 25 by a party-line vote of 23-16. According to the Committee report “HR 1891 is the first step in the Committee’s education reform efforts.” A Minority Report was not yet available.

(info quoted from JNCL) More info: Please note that on page 4, Rep. Rush Holt’s amendment to support foreign languages (included in an earlier mailing) lost on a 16-23 party-line vote. Around the chart on page 9, the Committee’s majority maintains that while spending for education in the United States has increased dramatically, “national academic performance has not improved.” The majority states “despite these investments, student achievement has remained flat.” On page 10, the Committee Report contends that they are “pursuing a new approach to education reform by re-evaluating the federal role in elementary and secondary education.”
 * HR 1891 will probably reach the House floor for a vote next month. Please contact your Members of Congress, particularly your Senators, to support the continuance of the Foreign Language Assistance Act (FLAP) and to oppose HR 1891 and/or comparable legislation.**

Specifically, the Committee Report on page 16 declares that Title I and Title II of ESEA and the Higher Education Act “could be used to support foreign language programs.” They do not indicate that these programs could do what FLAP does nor do they speak to the $26 million lost to K-12 foreign language education.

The bottom-line is that the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP), along with 42 other small, federal education programs, including a number that provide support for languages as part of their activities, is in danger of elimination by the House of Representatives. Even Start, Literacy, Close-Up, Dropout Prevention, Reform, the National Writing project, American History, Bilingual and Immigrant Education, the Arts, Gifted and Talented, and Hawaiian and Alaskan Education, inter alia, are eliminated.