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The Official Language Movement

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The official Language Movement
One of the main reasons that many immigrants come to the United States is to provide their children an education that they would not have received in their country or origin (Destination Casa Blanca, 2009). Children who struggle with language barriers would benefit from bilingual and early education programs to detect in what areas students are in need of help as they start their learning development. Yet others state that many immigrants and other students have achieved their goals without such programs and they would therefore be a waste of tax money and resources that could be better spent elsewhere. The issue is strong in education. Many immigrants and Americans that have children attending public schools have different views and organizations to support those feeling and beliefs.
Schaefer (2006) states that “until the last 20 or 30 years there was a conscious effort to devalue the Spanish language and to discourage Hispanics from using it in schools (p. 242). In the 1960s, the school boards in the Southwest, Florida, and New York City enforced a “No Spanish” rule and up until 1968 it was illegal to teach in any language other than English in California.
English as a second language (ESL) programs tend to emphasize bilingual but not bicultural education (Schaefer, 2006). Some Hispanics strongly oppose bilingualism, believing that English-only education, even for very young children, is the key to success. The growth of the Hispanic population has moved Congress towards recognizing the multilingual culture of the United States. Federal law has mandated that bilingual ballots be provided where necessary.
Bilingualism in politics in the United States is not a well understood concept, especially since most people do not speak several languages. Politicians who flaunt their knowledge of several languages seem elitist to the average

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