Mandatory Spanish for kindergartners?

Thanks to ManicNole for alerting me to this.

Here in Florida, a Democrat (go figure) has come up with this brilliant idea (the odor of sarcasm should be pungent right about...now) to mandate (calm down, Congressman Frank) Spanish for students in grades K-2.

The most formative of years to learn math and English (which rumor has it is spoken by infinitely more people in this country than any other language) should be introduced to Spanish, thinks Les Miller, Democrat from Tampa. Interestingly, Miller's name doesn't appear in the article...only the reference to "The state's top democrat (sic)." Read into that what you will. Article:

The youngest students in Southwest Florida's public school system could soon be saying hola to a new language. A proposed law would make Spanish mandatory for students in kindergarten through second grade.

"I frankly believe, the earlier you teach someone, the better it is," said George Muentes, an English as a second language teacher.

The law would make Spanish a core class like math and science. It would also force school officials to shuffle an already crowded schedule."

The length of the school day won't change, but the Spanish would have to be squeezed in somewhere, which means a few popular classes may have to be cut to make room.

"The options would be the specials, the arts, music and PE. But here in Charlotte County those are very important to us," said Mike Riley of the Charlotte County school district.

Cut special education, art, music, and PE? Yes, screw the autistic kids. After all, José might have a bruised ego if Little Johnny "no comprende español"...and everyone knows that there is a constitutional right to not be offended, a right that somehow has eluded 200+ years of constitutional scholarly study.

Yes-sir-ree, these same people who think the government needs to get involved with the fatness composition of kids think that one of the best ways to combat laziness and obesity in kids is to teach them how to properly say "Yo quiero Taco Bell" instead of doing jumping jacks!

Oh, well, look at the bright side: if kids are learning Spanish, they may just avoid the indoctrination of books like King and King and Heather Has Two Mommies.