It’s time to pass Senate Bill 559 / House Bill 6023 “Multilingual Educator Investment Act.” If passed, this act would establish a scholarship program for multilingual undergraduates and adults interested in becoming bilingual/dual language and world language educators at schools in the urban core or urban ring areas of Rhode Island. There has been a historic shortage of educators and, despite these shortages, few long-term, sustainable solutions have been presented. Rhode Island has 192 unfilled Bilingual or Dual Language educator positions with Providence alone accounting for 72 of them. We need to invest in our educators and decrease the financial barriers plaguing hopeful educators and create alternate pathways and programming for licensure, particularly for adults and non-traditional learners. 

 

Take action today and urge Rhode Island legislators to support multilingual educators!