PUBLIC SECTOR THREATENS PREDOMINANCE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

By Diane M. Grassi

“The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, or preventing all possibility of it continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also learn one language and that language is English.” – Theodore Roosevelt (1915)

In his final months in office, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13166 on August 11, 2000. Having wrangled with the United States Congress without success on the issue, E.O. 13166 directs all federal agencies to implement a system to improve access to federal programs and federally subsidized agencies by persons who are limited in their English proficiency (LEP). In conjunction with E.O. 13166, the Department of Justice issued a document titled, LEP Guidance, which set its compliance standards. Thus, agencies must follow that programs and activities they provide in English are also accessible to LEP persons and thus do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, or language.

On April 24, 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower court rulings of Sandoval v. Hagan brought in Federal court in June 1998. The plaintiff claimed that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act should also apply to persons not of ‘national origin’ on the basis of language. The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, eliminated any legal basis for E.O. 13166. In 2005 two bills, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate, would officially nullify E.O. 13166. The English Language Unity Act of 2005 or H.R. 997 is pending in the House and S.B. 557 is pending in the Senate.

The administration of President Bush attempts to downplay the Supreme Court's ruling in the Sandoval case and states, "It is the position of the Department of Justice that Executive Order 13166 remains in force.” Given the fact that the Sandoval decision threw out virtually the only judicial precedent that existed for issuing E.O. 13166, the administration established a “Mend It Don’t End It” mandate and urges all government agencies to balance common sense factors with availability of resources in complying with the order.

Years later the ramifications or implications of such policy has presented unending obstacles which range from issues of public safety to infringement upon the rights of Americans. To wit, Alabama continues to issue its driver’s license exams in 13 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Russian, Vietnamese, Thai and Spanish. However in 1990 the people of Alabama voted by a wide margin to amend their state constitution and make English the official language. In compliance with the law, Alabama stopped giving driver’s license exams in other languages. It was then challenged in federal court, and the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled that Alabama was within its constitutional rights to have such a policy. However, Alabama still allows driver’s license applicants to take their exams in multiple languages.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation, a constitutional public interest law firm, filed suit in May 2005, asking the court to enforce Amendment 509 of the Alabama Constitution, which gives standing to its citizens to enforce its English language driver’s license requirement. Also of importance, is that providing driver’s license tests in multiple languages is a threat to the public safety of the community, with traffic signs posted in English in addition to the inability of said driver to communicate with law enforcement in the event of an accident or emergency.

In addition to the trials and tribulations in Alabama, a southern California tree nursery recently filed a lawsuit against the state of California, alleging that it discriminates against foreign-language speaking workers by not offering safety tests in their native languages. GroWest is claiming its only crane operator, who has been employed there for 24 years, failed the state mandated Certification for Crane Operators exam because it was in English. Graham Brent, executive director of the state commission representing the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators that produces the test claims, “The issue doesn’t have anything to do with discriminating against people who do not speak English, but everything to do with safety.” Crane operators must be able to read the English language safety manuals, maintain required records and report unsafe conditions in English. California state attorney, David Pies, said, “Certain growers want to be able to continue to use workers who do not speak, read, or write English proficiently to operate cranes, regardless of the risk to them or their co-workers.”

The Denver Public Library system is actively promoting a plan that will make seven of its branches “Spanish focused.” This program banishes English language books to the storeroom. The program,” Languages and Learning,” plans to dramatically increase its Spanish language offerings as well as Spanish-speaking staff, and designates these locations as Spanish-dominant. But many residents as well as taxpayers in Denver have not taken this issue lightly. They rather view it as an act of favoritism, discriminating against other residents who combined, speak a total of 68 languages.

According to Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of U.S. English, Inc., a non-partisan citizens’ action group, says, “A major U.S. city is creating a public institution that intentionally excludes native-born Americans. This action goes against the model of assimilation that has successfully served the U.S. for centuries. An official Spanish library will further the notion that Spanish speaking immigrants can live in relative comfort without needing to learn our common language. We cannot send an English-optional message to any immigrant group.”

Had the Dallas County School Board listened to Mr. Mujica, perhaps it would not have pursued and finalized its plan and requirement to have over half of its schools’ principals learn Spanish where over 50% of its school population has LEP, which covers 42 of its 100 schools. It is the nation’s first school district which threatens principals with their jobs should they not learn Spanish within the prescribed period of three years.

Dallas School Board Trustee, Joe May, defended the new policy, approved August 25, 2005, and has said that not only over 50% of Dallas schools have students with LEP but the effort was made also for principals to be able to communicate with parents with LEP regarding their children’s performance. Dallas is also 9th in the nation with people who speak Vietnamese as a first language and 14th in the nation for Korean-speaking people. Six percent of the school districts’ population speaks a language other than English at home and the school’s policy has not allotted resources to promote English in those homes where Spanish is predominant.

If we go back to Theodore Roosevelt’s premise nearly 100 hundred years ago, we can either consider him a prophet of his time or perhaps we come to the realization that he had a great grasp of history as well as an eye on the future. In order for the United States to maintain its sovereignty and remain a nation undivided as well as prosperous, we must strive to be joined by a common thread, that being the English language. Without that common thread we are not a melting pot but rather a fractured society of various cultures with different sets of ideals. This can only lead to the undermining of America and we as Americans have the obligation to preserve it.