I know I'm replying to something over a month old, but oh well.
Throughout most of the country children in lower grades are taught Spanish.
When I was in school (I am 29 now), we had NO other languages taught until high school, then it was between Spanish and German. Both of which were electives. This was in a relatively small(ish) farm type town in Nothern IL (Belvidere, to be precise). I am almost positive a majority of the nearby school districts were the same, as I had some friends from Rockford.
"Why don't you call upon your God to strike me? Oh, I forgot it's because he's fake like Thor, so bite me" -Greydon Square