The Palcus (American American Leadership Council) conference took place last weekend in Washington and brought a novelty for the promotion of Portuguese Language in the United States. After the Secretary of State for Education Betsy DeVos declare Portuguese as the critical language in the country, it was also announced that the language will be included in all the 15 foreign languages that are part of the North American educational system, from teaching elementary to university. DeVos considered that the language meets the relevant requirement for US economic development.
Paulo de Jesus Martins, a counselor from the Portuguese community in New England, a region of the Northeastern tip of the United States that congregates the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, pointed out the importance of including Portuguese as a Critical Language. “This change gives greater visibility to the language”, he commented. Martins explained that “future students have the possibility to apply for scholarships or funds distributed by the federal department in Portuguese programs, both graduation, and undergraduate level”.
According to the Council of the Portuguese Communities (CCP), there are about 10 million students in the United States, from pre-school to 12th grade, who learn foreign languages.
Martins also added that there are 18 thousand students of Portuguese distributed by the North American public education and the community schools, especially directed for the teaching of the language. In total, 386 teachers teach in 658 courses from 161 educational institutions. “There must be investment to be able to integrate the teaching of Portuguese to more public schools,” he concluded.
Source: Portugal Digital