Letter: Foreign language mandate

To the Editor:

Concerning The Herald-News article on Feb. 1 about a new educational mandate bill to make learning a foreign language mandatory: Why wouldn’t they make learning about actual job requirements mandatory?

I searched many job openings, including openings advertised in The Herald-News, and found none that required knowledge of a foreign language.

I found job opportunities for diesel technicians, drafters, engineers, business computer systems workers, inventory control workers, lift truck operators, etc., but none had requirements for a foreign language.

Yet our legislators “want to be seen as supportive of efforts to enhance the K-12 experience of all children in the state’s 102 counties.” So they created a bill (new mandate) enhancing our school children’s experience to mandatorily take and pass two years of a foreign language in order to graduate.

This will enhance the future unemployed graduates to be able to speak a foreign language.

Jerry Taylor

Plainfield