U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced a bill today that would greatly expand opportunities for American college students to study abroad.
Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, a cosponsor of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2009
A day after Barack Obama warned that “our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for,” the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2009 is a clear effort to encourage more students to spend time abroad learning foreign languages, spur interest in diplomacy and international relations and, above all, make future generations more competitive in today’s global economy.
More specifically, the legislation’s goal is, in ten years’ time, to have a million American college students study abroad annually in quality programs in locations worldwide, particularly in the developing world.
According to a release from the Association of International Educators, “The program created by the Simon Act would, in addition to providing a pool of direct scholarships, encourage higher education institutions to address the on-campus factors that most heavily impact study abroad participation—curriculum, faculty involvement, institutional leadership, programming—by making a commitment to institutional reform a prerequisite for access to federal funds.”
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the other cosponsor of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2009
All of which is great. Legislation—and bipartisan, too!—supporting study abroad could never be important, as studying abroad, in my opinion, should be a requirement at all four-year institutions. That said, the cost of studying abroad is an issue as well—and the Simon Act would address that major concern as well with scholarships.
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