A major milestone for Portuguese language education in California: today I signed, on behalf of the President of Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P., a Memorandum of Understanding with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) — the second-largest school district in the U.S. and the largest in California, with over 550,000 students. This is the first-ever MoU LAUSD signs with a foreign government entity, and it establishes the framework for a five-year cooperation to expand Portuguese language and culture programs in Los Angeles.

The agreement was signed, on the LAUSD side, by Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. It crowns more than three years of negotiations led by the Portuguese Teaching Coordination Office in the U.S. (CEPE-EUA), with the support of the Portuguese diplomatic network. With two Portuguese programs already launched in 2023, this MoU paves the way for broader access to Portuguese as a global language in the educational landscape of California.

From the Consul-General of Portugal in San Francisco, Filipe Ramalheira.