Elizabeth Burmaster

In schools throughout our state, students, parents, and educators are increasingly understanding the importance of global literacy in preparing this generation for postsecondary education and careers.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a nationally prominent education-business collaboration, recognized these efforts with a 21st Century Skills Practice of the Year award recently. This marks the third year in a row that our global literacy activities have been recognized at the national level.

Across the state, Wisconsin educators are using the Department of Public Instruction curriculum guide for international education, the first of its kind in the nation. They are listening to world literacy recommendations from Wisconsin movers and shakers-leaders in business and government who engaged with the International Education Council that Gov. Jim Doyle and I formed in 2003.

They are participating in DPI-led partnerships with education communities in France, Germany, Japan, and Thailand. Soon, we will reap the benefits of federal funding secured by the DPI to allow 1,800 Wisconsin students to learn Mandarin and Arabic, two critical-need languages currently offered by only a few Wisconsin schools.

These wonderful initiatives are providing our students with more opportunities to develop the understanding, creativity, and problem-solving abilities that come with exposure to other cultures. But our youth still need us to do more.

We all must recognize the urgency of our students’ need for global literacy. I ask our legislators to reconsider a decision by the Joint Committee on Finance that removed a state budget provision to expand world language instruction to the elementary level. We need more people who are fluent in at least two languages, and starting at the elementary level, when the brain is most receptive to language learning, makes sense.

Other countries have embraced the challenge of creating world-class, highly competitive educational systems in which students become fluent in at least two languages. Those students are grateful for tools that help them succeed in the increasingly linked economies and societies of this world. Wouldn’t we like to give our children the same opportunities?

Citizens of Wisconsin should take pride in the global literacy programs we provide for our students and the award we won that recognized them. But to really prepare our youth for this increasingly connected and interdependent world, we can't stop now. We can’t even slow down. Not when the global society keeps gathering steam.

Elizabeth Burmaster is the state Superintendent of Public Instruction.