I love to say I told you so.
Each year, Eye On Illinois wraps with several columns taking quick looks at new laws taking effect the following January. The last such column has come to include a few key reminders, two of which are relevant today.
One is that anything the government creates, it can also eliminate. A second: just because the General Assembly puts a plan into action doesn’t guarantee things will go through to completion.
In some cases, the latter reminder is a matter of lacking money or follow-through, but in others, the two points are mutually inclusive. House Bill 4334 embodies one such possibility: it would repeal a change that hasn’t yet taken effect.
State Rep. Rick Ryan, D-Evergreen Park, introduced the bill last week, calling to remove a requirement that all high school students complete two years of a world language class to earn a diploma. The General Assembly enacted the change in the January 2021 lame duck session but delayed implementation until it would affect the high school class of 2033 – students who were in kindergarten at the time and currently in fifth grade.
At the time, I wrote about State Board of Education members who raised valid concerns: there are already too many high school graduation requirements, not all districts can sufficiently hire staff to offer the courses and integrating languages into elementary schools would be more logical from an education and curriculum density standpoint.
In 2023, state Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, introduced House Bill 4186, which would let students who complete one year of foreign language meet with their parent and a counselor to punt on the second year if it would interfere with career and technical education classes or be irrelevant to their post-high school goals. It also would prevent the state’s public universities from rejecting applicants’ public high school transcripts for having only one year of foreign language, but would allow requiring the second year to complete an undergraduate degree.
My oldest kid, now 21, took zero foreign language (unless you count AP computer science). The second was in a dual-language program in first and second grades, returned to Spanish in middle and high school, and now is certified biliterate (not yet bilingual). The freshman switched to Latin I this year. The sixth-grader is exploring French and Spanish and will pick one to study the next two years, offering the option to complete a second-year high school course in his freshman year, which is what I did before dropping French to pick up more literature, writing and music electives.
Communication skills are vital. Forcing world language into high school was never the best option, but thankfully, lawmakers still have time to change course.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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January 13, 2026 at 10:03AM
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