As many of you have heard by now, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a budget-cutting bill, H.R. 1, which proposes to eliminate funding for the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP). The U.S. Senate is now considering its legislation that will also cut funding for many programs and extend until March 18 the “Continuing Resolution” that funds all government programs, giving Congress and the President some additional time to come to an agreement on cuts and overall funding for the government. The bill currently being considered by the Senate DOES NOT include the elimination of FLAP funding. HOWEVER, we need all foreign language educators to ACT NOW in order to preserve this program.
This is what you need to do NOW:
1. Send an email or call the office of your own U.S. Representative AND both Senators for your state and tell them that you support foreign language education and ask them to oppose cuts to the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) in the Department of Education budget. Tell them that FLAP is the only funding from the national level dedicated to supporting innovative K-12 foreign language education in our schools. This is all you really need to say keep it simple BUT YOU NEED TO DO IT NOW. Here is the link to the Senate and House websites where you can get their email and other contact information http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/.
2. IF YOU HAVE A FLAP GRANT: be sure to tell your Representative and Senators what you are doing with the grant, how it benefits their district and the state, and how much funding it provides over the life of the grant. This is money that directly benefits THEIR District and THEIR state and they will want to try to preserve it.
3. Please ask the parents of your students to make the same contacts. They can say the same thing but they can also add that their child is learning a foreign language and their opportunity to do so may be threatened due to such cuts.
4. Download the list of Senate Appropriations Committee members. Of course, if any one of these Senators is from your state, you should contact them IMMEDIATELY.
The Senate needs to pass its budget cut bill by Friday to avoid a government shut-down. Make your calls and send your emails now and continue to encourage your colleagues and the parents of your students to make these contacts even after a bill passes. Why? Because even if the Senate bill passes now without cuts to FLAP, the House, Senate, and President Obama are going to have to continue to look for programs to cut in order to reach agreement on funding for the rest of this year and FLAP could be included later. If the foreign language profession does not speak up for its own programs then cuts to FLAP and Title VI higher education programs are almost assured.