The California Education Code requires that students must complete one year of visual or performing arts, career technical education, or foreign language. The state has no isolated requirement for students to learn another language. Although San Juan Unified does require at least two years of the same foreign language to graduate, not all districts have the same requirements. 

The California Education Code should require much more extensive foreign language classes throughout the state. The California Board of Education published in “The Benefits of Being Bilingual” that people who are bilingual or biliterate are more successful at understanding math concepts, developing critical thinking skills, using logic, focusing, memorization and learning additional languages. In the long term, speaking two or more languages allows communication with a much wider range of people around the world. 

Since COVID, students of all ages have seen a steady decline in grades and proficiency in subjects across the board. Many teachers and districts have struggled with the issue of how to reverse this decline, and the solution may be in foreign language education.

With all of the proven benefits of being bilingual or biliterate, it’s possible that better and earlier foreign language classes could help improve the skills that so many students struggle to build in school. In 2023, less than 42% of California students met or exceeded standards in English language arts, along with just 29.6% in math. 

Aside from the benefits of knowing several languages on other academic skills, biliteracy also has massive real-life benefits. For example, over 10 million Californians speak Spanish as or more fluently than they do English. Speaking Spanish, French, Mandarin or a variety of other languages could be greatly beneficial for students in the professional world throughout their lives, and could open up opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be available to them, especially in such a diverse state like California.