Education policy often focuses on reading and math; for American students to compete with their peers abroad, however, second language skills are essential. Although English is currently the lingua franca of trade, education, and diplomacy, in the globalized world of the 21st century, Americans with limited language skills are at a disadvantage and American education isn’t doing enough to fix that.

In the 2014 to 2015 school year, an American Academy of Arts and Sciences report on secondary language learning showed that only nine states enrolled at least 30 percent of all K-12 students in a language other than English. The majority of American K-12 students receive no foreign language instruction.