HI SCR148

Request that the Department of Education establish a Mandarin Chinese language curriculum in public high schools available by the 2015-2016 academic school year.

Cite China's emergence as the world's second-largest economy and its projected growth as justification for students to develop multilingual and multicultural competencies.

Note that the U.S. Department of Defense classifies Mandarin as a critical needs foreign language and that Mandarin study develops unique cognitive and academic skills due to the language's tonal structure and character system.

Highlight the disparity that in 2006, over 200 million Chinese children studied English while only 24,000 of 54 million American students studied Chinese.

Direct certified copies of the resolution to be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education.