As the job market gets more competitive, skills like speaking or reading multiple languages can set job seekers apart. Two state lawmakers are encouraging Florida students to be proficient before high school graduation.
Sen. Anitere Flores and Rep. Eric Fresen, both Republicans from Miami, want Florida’s school districts to recognize students graduating with competency in multiple languages. Flores says grads would get an extra seal on their diploma.
“And while that sometimes it might not sound so much to us who are further removed from high school,” Flores says, “when you’re a high school student applying to a college, or perhaps getting ready to work in the workforce, every recognition really makes a big difference.”
Flores says similar programs are catching on in other large, diverse states.
“We have seen this Seal of Biliteracy as something that has been happening across the country really as a way to award students who have achieved and been able to attain proficiency in more than one language by the time they graduate high school,” she says.
The initiative is part of a wide-ranging education bill awaiting Governor Rick Scott’s signature. He has until the fourteenth to decide whether to approve the measure.
