Recently introduced to the Oregon legislature, House Bill 2756 aims to establish an Oregon Roadmap to Language Excellence Scholarship for high school graduates entering college who demonstrate foreign language proficiency. Students pursuing their undergraduate or graduate degrees could use the scholarship to help cover tuition, fees, and living expenses related to attending an Oregon university. The bill calls for the scholarship to total up to $2,000 per student per year.

Sponsored by Representatives Buckley, Komp, Bailey, and Richardson, HB 2756 was introduced and read on the House floor on February 19, 2009. Speaker of the House Dave Hunt has subsequently reviewed and referred the bill to the Education Committee and the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

HB 2756 stemmed from the Oregon Roadmap to Language Excellence, an initiative lead by the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon and funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP). "Of the three federally funded Roadmap projects, Oregon is the first to produce a tangible, legislative call to action," says Policy and Research Analyst Colin Crocker, who has worked with the Roadmap initiative since its beginning in 2007.

The Roadmap, a set of thirteen specific proposals, aims to create conditions that would allow every Oregon graduate to be functionally proficient in English and one other language by 2025. This legislation is the first step in rewarding students who demonstrate proficiency, and the Roadmap also seeks to support educational institutions that help students succeed.

The Oregon Roadmap to Language Excellence reflects a partnership among business, government, and education to help the state meet the demand for a bilingual workforce. Erick Watson, lead project manager for Microsoft, explains the importance of employees with high-level language skills. "We do business in more than 160 companies, so it's really imperative for us that we have a highly educated and culturally fluent workforce."