The Iowa City Community School District is considered one of the best districts in the country. However, with all of the recent cuts in our school system announced due to budgeting problems, we are on our way to having our reputation revoked.

Not only will dozens of crucial teachers be laid off, librarians will be let go, 4th grade orchestra will be cut, 7th grade football will be gone, general music for junior high students out the window, all foreign languages for junior high students will be cut - and German classes for every student - are being eliminated from the ICCSD.

This language elimination is a terrible idea, and should be withdrawn. It is very important for students to start languages early, it allows the language to sink in better and they are more likely to do well when it comes to learning that language and other languages in the future. Not only will cutting languages harm students’ learning, it will also put many wonderful teachers out of work.

Many of the programs that are being cut should stay implemented, but keeping languages in the junior high schools should be the top priority. Taking away students’ opportunities should never be part of a school district, yet so many opportunities are being taken away from students due to the recent budget cuts.

We have created this petition to show the ICCSD how many people stand behind the importance of teaching foreign languages, with the hope that our opinion will cause those who are making these budget cut decisions to rethink this mistake and keep foreign languages in the classroom.