Ken, great article. Rochester is by no means alone in this predicament. Check out CAL's recently published study, "Foreign Language Teaching in US Schools," conducted by Nancy Rhodes and Ingrid Pufahl.
http://www.cal.org/projects/Exec%20Summary_111009.pdfSpecifically look at this data: "The percentage of elementary and middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased significantly from 1997 to 2008: from 31% to 25% of all elementary schools and from 75% to 58% of all middle schools. The decline at the elementary level occurred mainly in public elementary schools; the percentage of private elementary schools teaching languages remained about the same. The percentage of high schools teaching foreign languages stayed relatively steady at about 91% Only a small percentage of the schools not teaching languages in 2008 expressed an interest in offering languages in the next 2 years: 8% of elementary schools and 17% of secondary schools."
In New York State alone, public school districts are squeezed both for funding and for time in the school day, which is largely dominated by test preparation and test taking.
