140 Arabic Teachers to Teach in Chicago Public Schools

By Naazish YarKhan At least 140 Arabic teachers are arriving in the United States to teach Arabic to students in Chicago Public Schools. The move is part of the National Security Language Initiative launched by President Bush in January 2006. “We need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, knows what they’re talking about... These diplomats need to speak that language (Arabic). They expect us to be wise about how we use our resources, and a good use of resources is to promote this language initiative in K through 12, in our universities,” Bush said last year in his remarks to the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education. This summer the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland launched the newest program in the president’s National Security Language Initiative – an innovative summer program to teach Arabic and Chinese to more than 1,000 high school students at sites around the country. Called STARTALK, the program is jointly funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense.

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140 Arabic Teachers to Teach in Chicago Public Schools

140 Arabic Teachers to Teach in Chicago Public Schools