Washington lawmakers want computer science to count as foreign language

House Bill 1445 would amend current state law, which only recognizes “any natural language” that is “formally studied... including a Native American language, American Sign Language, Latin, or ancient Greek.”

“It’s an indication of the low value that many American politicians—and unfortunately, educators—place on foreign language learning. No linguist I know of buys the argument that a computer programming language is even close to a natural language and should be treated as such.”