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Study: Floridians Support Mandatory Spanish Classes In Public Schools
July 9, 2015
Two-thirds of Floridians support requiring Spanish language instruction in Florida public schools, according to a new University of Florida survey.
“Overall reactions to the notion that Spanish should be a required subject in public schools was far less polarized and more popular than we imagined,” said Chris McCarty, director of the University of Florida Survey Research Center at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, which conducted the survey. “As immigration and the Hispanic vote will be front and center in the 2016 presidential election and Florida a swing state, we can expect this to be a topic of discussion.”
The questionnaire was designed to gather opinions about requiring Spanish instruction without focusing explicitly on that subject. The questions asked by professional telephone interviewers included five topics of instruction, with emphasis on requirement: “The next questions are about REQUIRED classes in Florida public schools. For each class, please tell me if you think it should be REQUIRED.”
The highest support was for basic computer skills, with 95 percent saying “agree” or “strongly agree.” Next was “a second language of student’s choice” with 81 percent agreement, followed by Florida history (77 percent) and geometry (75 percent).
The magnitude of support for requiring Spanish (67 percent) is important because a constitutional amendment requiring Spanish instruction would need 60 percent of voters. However, the survey did not ask about funding, which may pose a barrier to implementation.
Comments
10 Responses to “Study: Floridians Support Mandatory Spanish Classes In Public Schools”
I do not think Spanish be a mandatory subject. united states is revolving around
Spanish for some reason that I don’t know about. we cater more to the Spanish
than any other language. why is it up to us to transform our language to the
Spanish language. English is the language of America lets keep it that way
Children who do not speak English as a primary language, or speak English well are required to attend ESOL or ESL classes in our public school system. English is the language of the United States, so I do NOT think Spanish should be mandatory. I DO think is should be a language choice for students as they would probably use it more than any other language at this time in the US. I am semi-proficient in Spanish because of my job, and it does come in handy when translation is needed. I learned it purely by having 1 year in school – many, many years ago and simple practice in speaking with Spanish speakers. I could make my way in a purely Spanish speaking environment. This is a question about what students should be REQUIRED to learn, and I don’t think Spanish fits the bill.
I was not asked about this either. Although I have no objection to Spanish being taught in school, I do not think it should Mandatory. I also think it should be taught by someone whose first language is Spanish. My Spanish teacher was from South Georgia and I guarantee you would not understand my Spanish!!!
E.M.D.- Children whose native languages are not English do take classes to learn English. English for Speakers of Other Languages, aka ESOL or ESL, is taught to Hispanic & Viet Namese children. When I was a teacher assistant, all teachers were required to take ESOL workshops. The children usually became translators for their parents. The parents are the ones who should be required to learn English, IMO.
In the late ’50’s, Navy Point Elementary school would have once or twice a week Spanish lessons…showed cartoon films to teach…guess it was a pilot program, as they did not have it the next year.
NO, we DON’T
Why make a student choose Spanish over, French, Latin, or even American Sign?
Florida THINK! What is the reason for this? Is it that we have so many illegals and they aren’t willing to learn the language for the country in which they choose to live in!
I’d love to see the transcripts of just how the question of requiring Spanish was asked. I’d almost bet that the majority thought they were voting to require Spanish speaking students to learn English.
Who did they pole. I was not asked.
Shows just how many illegals are in Florida.
Fine……….as long as they make English classes mandatory for Spanish speaking students.