The Gazette – Ralph Becker 
In 2013, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences issued a report about the U.S. educational system, which was “narrowing” its broad liberal arts focus and whose foreign language efforts were in a precipitous decline. Between 300 and 400 million Chinese students were studying English, while of the 50 million U.S. K-12 students, about 200,000 were studying Mandarin. In Europe, about two-thirds of the adults know more than one language, whereas in the U.S., about one-fifth do, and most were native speakers. In February 2017, a new report, “America’s Languages: Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century,” was issued by Paul LeClerc, the chair of the academy’s commission on language learning. The “investment” it advocates, however, is not government funding, but building creative partnerships to increase teaching capacity.(more)