World Language Advancement and Readiness Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1094 To authorize the Secretary of Defense to make grants to support the study of world languages in elementary schools and secondary schools. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 7, 2019 Mr. PRICE of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. COLE, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. TITUS, Mr. HIMES, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. MOORE, Mr. KIND, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. LANGEVIN, and Ms. LOFGREN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider- ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To authorize the Secretary of Defense to make grants to support the study of world languages in elementary schools and secondary schools. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘World Language Ad- 4 vancement and Readiness Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1094 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress finds the following: 2 (1) The national security of the United States 3 continues to depend on language readiness, in par- 4 ticular among the seventeen agencies of the Intel- 5 ligence Community. 6 (2) The levels of language proficiency required 7 for national security necessitate long sequences of 8 language training for personnel in the Intelligence 9 Community and the Department of Defense. 10 (3) The future national security and economic 11 well-being of the United States will depend substan- 12 tially on the ability of its citizens to communicate 13 and compete by knowing the languages and cultures 14 of other countries. 15 (4) The Federal Government has an interest in 16 ensuring that the employees of its departments and 17 agencies with national security responsibilities are 18 prepared to meet the challenges of this changing 19 international environment. 20 (5) The Federal Government also has an inter- 21 est in taking actions to alleviate the problem of 22 American students being inadequately prepared to 23 meet the challenges posed by increasing global inter- 24 action among nations. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1094 IH (6) American elementary schools, secondary 1 schools, colleges, and universities must place a new 2 emphasis on improving the teaching of foreign lan- 3 guages, area studies, counterproliferation studies, 4 and other international fields to help meet those 5 challenges. 6 SEC. 3. WORLD LANGUAGE ADVANCEMENT AND READINESS 7 GRANTS. 8 (a) PROGRAM AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of De- 9 fense, in consultation with the Director of National Intel- 10 ligence and the Secretary of Education, shall carry out 11 a program under which the Secretary of Defense makes 12 grants, on a competitive basis, to State educational agen- 13 cies and local educational agencies to pay the Federal 14 share of the cost of innovative model programs providing 15 for the establishment, improvement, or expansion of world 16 language study for elementary school and secondary school 17 students. 18 (b) DURATION.—Each grant under this Act shall be 19 awarded for a period of 3 years. 20 (c) REQUIREMENTS FOR STATE AND LOCAL EDU- 21 CATIONAL AGENCIES.— 22 (1) GRANTS TO STATE EDUCATIONAL AGEN- 23 CIES.—In awarding a grant under subsection (a) to 24 a State educational agency, the Secretary of Defense 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1094 IH shall support programs that promote systemic ap- 1 proaches to improving world language learning in 2 the State. 3 (2) GRANTS TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN- 4 CIES.—In awarding a grant under subsection (a) to 5 a local educational agency, the Secretary of Defense 6 shall support programs that— 7 (A) show the promise of being continued 8 beyond the grant period; 9 (B) demonstrate approaches that can be 10 disseminated to and duplicated in other local 11 educational agencies; and 12 (C) may include a professional develop- 13 ment component. 14 (d) FEDERAL SHARE.— 15 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para- 16 graph (2), the Federal share for each fiscal year 17 shall be 50 percent. 18 (2) EXCEPTION.—The Secretary of Defense 19 may determine the Federal share for any local edu- 20 cational agency that the Secretary determines does 21 not have adequate resources to pay the non-Federal 22 share. 23 (e) ALLOCATION OF FUNDS.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1094 IH (1) Not less than 75 percent of the funds made 1 available to carry out this Act for a fiscal year shall 2 be used for the expansion of world language learning 3 in elementary schools. 4 (2) Not less than 75 percent of the funds made 5 available to carry out this Act for a fiscal year shall 6 be used to support instruction in world languages 7 determined by the Secretary of Defense to be critical 8 to the national security interests of the United 9 States. 10 (3) The Secretary of Defense may reserve not 11 more than 5 percent of funds made available to 12 carry out this Act for a fiscal year to evaluate the 13 efficacy of programs that receive grants under sub- 14 section (a). 15 (f) APPLICATIONS.— 16 (1) IN GENERAL.—To be considered for a grant 17 under subsection (a), a State educational agency or 18 local educational agency shall submit an application 19 to the Secretary of Defense at such time, in such 20 manner, and containing such information and assur- 21 ances as the Secretary may require. 22 (2) SPECIAL CONSIDERATION.—The Secretary 23 of Defense shall give special consideration to appli- 24 cations describing programs that— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1094 IH (A) include intensive summer world lan- 1 guage programs for professional development of 2 world language teachers; 3 (B) link nonnative English speakers in the 4 community with the schools in order to promote 5 two-way language learning; 6 (C) promote the sequential study of a 7 world language for students, beginning in ele- 8 mentary schools; 9 (D) make effective use of technology, such 10 as computer-assisted instruction, language lab- 11 oratories, or distance learning, to promote 12 world language study; 13 (E) promote innovative activities, such as 14 dual language immersion, partial world lan- 15 guage immersion, or content-based instruction; 16 and 17 (F) are carried out through a consortium 18 comprised of the agency receiving the grant, an 19 elementary school or secondary school, and an 20 institution of higher education (as that term is 21 defined in section 102 of the Higher Education 22 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002)). 23 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 24 In this Act: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1094 IH (1) ESEA TERMS.—The terms ‘‘elementary 1 school’’, ‘‘local educational agency’’, ‘‘secondary 2 school’’, and ‘‘State educational agency’’ have the 3 meanings given the terms in section 8101 of the Ele- 4 mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 5 U.S.C. 7801). 6 (2) WORLD LANGUAGE.—The term ‘‘world lan- 7 guage’’ means— 8 (A) any natural language other than 9 English, including— 10 (i) languages determined by the Sec- 11 retary of Defense to be critical to the na- 12 tional security interests of the United 13 States; 14 (ii) classical languages; 15 (iii) American sign language; and 16 (iv) Native American languages; and 17 (B) any language described in subpara- 18 graph (A) that is taught in combination with 19 English as part of a dual language or immer- 20 sion learning program. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:52 Feb 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1094.IH H1094 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS