[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1888-S1890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I take this time to draw to the 
attention of my colleagues a significant report, released on February 
9, 2006 in Washington, DC, by the Committee for Economic Development, 
CED, a group of some 200 business leaders and several university 
presidents.
  The CED statement, ``Education for Global Leadership: The Importance 
of International Studies and Foreign Language Education for U.S. 
Economic and National Security'', asserts that the United States will 
be less competitive in the global economy because of a shortage of 
strong foreign language and international studies programs in our 
colleges and high schools and warns, too, that the lack of Americans 
educated in foreign languages and cultures is hampering efforts to 
counter terrorist threats.
  The cochairs of the CED subcommittee that produced the report are 
Charles E.M. Kolb, President of CED; Alfred T. Mockett, CED trustee, 
former chairman and CEO, CGI-AMS, Inc.; and another CED trustee, Dr. 
John Brademas, president emeritus of New York University and former 
Member--1959-1981--of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana.
  Dr. Brademas brought long and distinguished experience to his 
responsibilities as cochair of the CED subcommittee. A member of the 
House of Representatives from 1959 to 1981, he served throughout those 
years on the House Committee on Education and Labor and for 10 years 
chaired its Select Subcommittee on Education. He played a major role in 
writing the landmark education legislation of that period, including 
the Elementary and Secondary School Act and the Higher Education Act, 
and he was the author of the International Education Act of 1966.
  The recommendations in the CED Report include teaching international 
content across the curriculum and at all levels of learning, to expand 
American students' knowledge of other countries and cultures; expanding 
the training pipeline at every level of education to address the 
paucity of Americans fluent in strategic languages, especially 
critical, less commonly taught languages; national leaders--political

[[Page S1889]]

leaders as well as the business and philanthropic communities and the 
media--should educate the public about the importance of improving 
education in languages other than English and in international studies.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
the remarks of Dr. Brademas on the CED report, ``Education for Global 
Leadership.''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

   Education for Global Leadership: The Importance of International 
 Studies and Foreign Language Education for U.S. Economic and National 
        Security: of CED, the Committee for Economic Development

       The opportunity to serve as a co-chair of the Subcommittee 
     of the Committee for Economic Development (CED) that produced 
     a report entitled, Education for Global Leadership: The 
     Importance of International Studies and Foreign Language 
     Education for U.S. Economic and National Security, has 
     enabled me to champion anew what has been a passion of mine 
     from childhood.
       Son of a Greek immigrant father and a Scots-English-Irish 
     mother, I read a book in elementary school in Indiana about 
     the Mayas, decided I wanted to become a Mayan archaeologist, 
     started learning Spanish, as a highschooler hitchhiked to 
     Mexico, as a Harvard undergraduate spent a summer working 
     with Aztec Indians in rural Mexico, wrote my college honors 
     essay on a Mexican peasant movement and, four years later, at 
     Oxford University, my Ph.D. dissertation on the anarchist 
     movement in Spain.
       Although I studied anarchism, I did not practice it! In 
     1958 I was first elected to Congress, and then ten times 
     reelected, serving, therefore, for twenty-two years.
       In 1961, as a member of the House Committee on Education 
     and Labor, I visited Argentina to study how colleges and 
     universities in Latin America could contribute to President 
     Kennedy's ``Alliance for Progress''.
       I made other trips to Latin America--Cuba, Peru, Panama, 
     Colombia, Venezuela--honing my Spanish and learning more 
     about the Spanish-speaking Americas.
       In 1981 I became president of New York University, where, 
     two years later, I awarded an honorary degree to King Juan 
     Carlos I of Spain, announced a professorship in his name and 
     in 1997, in the presence of Their Majesties, the King and 
     Queen Sofia, and of the then First Lady of the United States, 
     now Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, dedicated the King Juan 
     Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU for the study of the 
     economics, history and politics of modern Spain.
       All this was the result of my having, in South Bend, 
     Indiana, read a book about the Mayas when I was a schoolboy!
       So I know what early exposure to another culture, another 
     country, another language has meant in my own life.


                  international education act of 1966

       Indeed, while in Congress, I wrote the International 
     Education Act of 1966, to provide grants to colleges and 
     universities in the United States for the study of other 
     countries and cultures. President Lyndon Johnson signed the 
     bill into law but Congress failed to appropriate the funds to 
     implement it.
       And I believe that among the reasons--I do not say the only 
     one--the United States suffered such loss of lives and 
     treasure in Vietnam and does now in Iraq is ignorance--
     ignorance of the cultures, histories and languages of those 
     societies.
       I add that the tragedies of 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali and 
     Baghdad must bring home to us as Americans the imperative, as 
     a matter of our national security, of learning more about the 
     world of Islam.
       Here I note that only one year ago, the US Department of 
     Defense, recalling the launch by the Soviet Union of Sputnik 
     in 1957, brought together leaders from government, the 
     academy and language associations to produce a ``call to 
     action for national foreign language capabilities''. There 
     was then--and still is--particular concern about our lack of 
     Arabic speakers.
       But it is not only for reasons of national security that we 
     must learn more about countries and cultures other than our 
     own. Such knowledge is indispensable, too, to America's 
     economic strength and competitive position in the world.
       The marketplace has now become global. Modern technology--
     the Internet, for example--has made communication and travel 
     possible on a worldwide basis. In the last few years, I 
     myself have visited Spain, England, Greece, Jordan, Morocco, 
     Cuba, Kazakhstan, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam.
       New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has eloquently 
     spelled out the impact of globalization on culture, politics, 
     science and history in his book, The World Is Flat.


                         global studies at nyu

       Reflecting on my commitment to international education, 
     during my presidency of NYU, my colleagues and I established 
     a Center for Japan-U.S. Business & Economic Studies, a Casa 
     Italiana Zerilli-Marimo, Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies, 
     the Eric Maria Remarque Institute for European studies, 
     Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and King 
     Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, and we are now planning a 
     Center for Dialogue with the Islamic world.
       I add that NYU also has campuses abroad--in London, Paris, 
     Florence, Madrid, Prague and now, Ghana. The Institute of 
     International Education reported a few weeks ago that in 
     2003-04, NYU sent more students to study abroad than any 
     other American college or university. And next fall, NYU will 
     offer a study abroad site in Shanghai, the first for a large 
     American university there.
       I call your attention in this respect to the report issued 
     last year, Global Competence and National Needs: One Million 
     Americans Studying Abroad. Produced by the Commission on the 
     Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program.
       The report calls for sending one million students from the 
     United States to study abroad annually in a decade.
       I add that New York University ranks fifth on the list for 
     hosting students from other countries.
       I continue to be deeply dedicated to international 
     education at the college and university level.
       But I do not think we should wait until students go to 
     college to begin learning about other countries and learning 
     languages other than English.
       We should start in grade school and, where possible, even 
     at the pre-school level.
       Now if as a Member of Congress and as president of New York 
     University, I pressed for more study of other countries, 
     cultures and languages, I continued--and continue--to do so 
     wearing other hats.
       Appointed, by President Clinton, chairman of the 
     President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which 
     in 1997 produced a report, Creative America, with 
     recommendations for generating more support, public and 
     private, for these two fields in American life, I was pleased 
     that our Committee recommended that our ``schools and 
     colleges . . . place greater emphasis on international 
     studies and the history, languages and cultures of other 
     nations.''
       President Clinton and then First Lady Hillary Rodham 
     Clinton accepted our Committee's recommendation to hold a 
     White House Conference on ``Culture and Diplomacy''.


                    national endowment for democracy

       As for seven years, chairman of the National Endowment for 
     Democracy, the federally financed agency that makes grants to 
     private groups struggling to build democracy in countries 
     where it does not exist, I had another exposure to the 
     imperative of knowing about other countries and cultures.
       I continue that interest through service on the US-Japan 
     Foundation, US-Spain Council, World Conference of Religions 
     for Peace, Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in 
     Southeast Europe, Council for a Community of Democracies as 
     well as on the Advisory Councils of Transparency 
     International, the organization that combats corruption in 
     international business transactions, and by chairing the 
     American Ditchley Foundation, which helps plan meetings on 
     all manner of subjects at Ditchley Park, a conference center 
     outside Oxford, England.
       I'm also vice chair of the Advisory Council of Americans 
     for UNESCO, an organization that shares our concerns today, 
     led by its president, Richard T. Arndt, veteran of the United 
     States Information Agency and author of a recent book, The 
     First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the 
     Twentieth Century.
       Last Fall I spoke in Ottawa on the fifteen anniversary of 
     the Canada-U.S. Fulbright program, and I have been asked to 
     take part this year in conferences in the Czech Republic, 
     Guatemala, Greece, Japan, Turkey and Rwanda.
       So you will, with these words of personal background, 
     understand my enthusiasm for this CED report, and I want to 
     congratulate the other co-chairs of the Subcommittee, Charlie 
     Kolb and Alfred Mockett, as well as the CED staff who did 
     such outstanding work in preparing it--Daniel Schecter, Donna 
     Desrochers and Rachel Dunsmoor.


                major recommendations of the ced report

       Here I want only to reiterate the major recommendations of 
     our CED report:
       1. That ``international content be taught across the 
     curriculum and at all levels of learning, to expand American 
     students' knowledge of other countries and cultures.''
       2. That we expand ``the training pipeline at every level of 
     education to address the paucity of Americans fluent in 
     foreign languages, especially critical, less commonly taught 
     ones such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian/
     Farsi, Russian and Turkish.
       3. That ``national leaders--political leaders, as well as 
     the business and philanthropic communities and the media--
     educate the public about the importance of improving 
     education in foreign languages and international studies.''
       The report we release today contains concrete proposals for 
     action, especially for programs financed by the Federal 
     Government, with specific recommendations for appropriations 
     to implement our proposals.
       Here I want to make a crucial point. We must put our money 
     where our recommendations are!
       I reiterate that the failure of Congress forty years ago to 
     vote the funds to carry out the provisions of the 
     International Education Act, a measure to achieve many of the 
     purposes articulated in this CED report, meant a loss to the 
     nation we should not repeat.


      funds for international education, foreign language studies

       Accordingly, we should examine with care the budget 
     recommendations of President

[[Page S1890]]

     Bush for Fiscal 2007 for programs to strengthen international 
     education and foreign language studies even as we must follow 
     tenaciously the response of Congress.
       I was very pleased in this respect that last month 
     President Bush told a group of U.S. university presidents of 
     his proposal to strengthen foreign language study, 
     particularly Arabic and other critical languages.
       The President spoke of a ``National Security Language 
     Initiative'' and asked for $114 million in Fiscal 2007 as 
     ``seed money'' to establish critical language instruction in 
     grade schools, support college-level language courses and 
     create a national corps of ``reserve'' linguists who could 
     serve in times of need.
       Although an encouraging sign, as The New Republic said last 
     month (January 23, 2006), ``[I]t remains to be seen whether 
     the lightly funded initiative will be anything more than 
     symbolic.''
       Now we must be sure that Congress votes even this modest 
     amount of money to carry out this promise and, indeed, do 
     much better!
       For as the final sentence of our CED report declares, ``Our 
     national security and our economic prosperity ultimately 
     depend on how well we educate today's students to become 
     tomorrow's global leaders.''
       Amen!

                          ____________________