Globalization in our schools

Some statistics that are disturbing and do not bode well for the U.S.:

• Two-thirds of our students have never studied a second language.
• Twelve times as many study American Sign Language than study Chinese.
• Five hundred high schoolers study Arabic, 175,000 study Latin.
• Only 1% of college students study abroad, and most of them study in Western Europe.
• Fewer than 10% of universities require study of a foreign language for admission.
• 92% of American undergraduates never take a foreign language.
• Bush's National Security Language Initiative will provide $24,000,000 for foreign language instruction in the public schools; his abstinence-only sex education programs have $206,000,000 to spend.

Are our students ready for the global world of the 21st century?