LEWISTON — The School Committee on Monday approved requiring the Class of 2025 to take two years of a foreign language in order to graduate, the same as state law.

However, educators and officials doubt the state requirement will stay, given how much it would cost to hire more high school language teachers, the shortage of language teachers, and the lack of time in students’ schedules.

What they’d like to see, School Committee members said, is foreign language taught to elementary pupils.

“When I was in junior high we had French,” committee member Richard White said. “What happened? We need to go back to what worked.”

Lewiston High School Principal Shawn Chabot said adding two years of foreign language to graduation requirements for the Class of 2025, who are now fourth-graders, would meet state law.

Chabot said he’s asked his foreign language teachers to develop a plan for how the school could prepare to offer a foreign language to all students in four years. “Obviously, we would have to hire a number of teachers,” Chabot said, adding that he didn’t know how many, but it would be substantial.

Bernie Fortier, who teaches Latin at the high school, said he’s opposed to the state mandate because it would hurt rather than help students.

If all high school students had to take two years of foreign language, many would not have the room in their schedules to attend the Lewiston Regional Technical Center, a program that benefits students greatly, Fortier said.

And the law is “the state law, right now,” Fortier said. “I belong to the teachers’ union. When there’s an issue, we lobby.” If he were a superintendent or school board member, he’d lobby state legislators to change the law.

The foreign language requirements have been pushed off by the state for decades, Fortier said. With a nudge from superintendents and school boards, “it will get pushed off again.”

School Committee member Francis Gagnon agreed there’s a problem with meeting the law, but he and other members said language for all students should be embraced as much as possible.

“Ultimately, I would love to see language taught in second grade,” School Committee member Benjamin Martin said. The issue won’t be solved by the committee, “but we can still give our input” to state officials.

Committee member Tom Shannon said he was pleased to hear support for offering foreign language to young students. He remembered when foreign languages were taught in fifth and sixth grade. Every study shows the best time to teach foreign language is when students are young, he said.

“It never served our city to stop teaching it in the elementary schools,” Shannon said. “Is it something we can fix here? I think not.”

Jornie Kinga, a Lewiston High School student who serves as a student representative on the School Committee, agreed that it’s important to offer language to children when they are young.

She immigrated to the United States and learned English when she was young.

“It benefited me learning English when I was 8” compared to learning a new language in high school.

“There is so much required of us at the high school,” Kinga said.