Monday, December 19, 2011

Schools Matter: Proposed legislation I would support

Schools Matter: Proposed legislation I would support:


Proposed legislation I would support

Submitted to Language Magazine, Dec. 2011 in response to the question: “For 2012, we would like you to tell us which one piece of proposed legislation you would like to see enacted in 2012 and why.”
S. Krashen

There is no proposed legislation in language education I would like to see enacted.

This includes legislation that imposes standards. We are told we need them because our educational system is “broken,” as shown by international test scores. But test scores of American students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools are among the best in world. Our mediocre overall scores are due to the fact that the US has the highest level of child poverty among all industrialized countries (now over 21%, compared to high-