National Capital Language Resource Center: Who Is Paying the Bills? The Federal Budget and Foreign Language Education in U.S. Schools and Universities

In this paper, the authors review all the Federal programs that support, at least partially, foreign language education for non-government language students, and they calculated the maximum amount that these programs spend on foreign language education. The Department of Education (ED) receives the most funding for these projects with total funding allocations for the ED in 2003 amounting to $62.9 billion. Yet in the same year, total funding for foreign language education in the ED budget was a maximum of $85,425,469, which constitutes 0.15% of the overall ED budget. In other words, for each $100 spent by the Department of Education in 2003, fifteen cents was spent on foreign language education. Monies from other federal departments and agencies that went to support foreign language education for non-government students were approximately $9.75 million in 2003. Together, the total federal expenditure on foreign language education for non-government students in 2003 was less than $95.2 million. This article explains how the estimated expenditure on foreign language education was determined. Also provided are brief descriptions of the federally-funded programs that support the teaching of foreign languages to non-government students. [This article was originally published by the National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC). Reprinted with permission from NCLRC.]