Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I find it ironic that some of the very people that will speak out in behalf of this English-only bill today are the very people who just a few weeks ago voted to cut education programs that helped young American schoolchildren learn English, voted against Head Start programs, voted against adult education funding programs that helped adults even speak English, voted to cut funding for title I that help our low-income Spanish speaking children in Texas learn how to speak English. To me, in any language, that rhetoric versus that action does not make sense. It seems to me that the question today is not whether American citizens should be encouraged to learn English, because we all agree that is the language of our country. The question today is what is the best way to encourage and help our citizens become English proficient. I would suggest English plus is a much better approach than English only. I would suggest that debating education funding would be a better way to spend our time today than debating English only. The English-only bill before this House today is unnecessary, it is insulting, it is divisive, and it is discriminatory. It is unnecessary because I hardly believe the future of the American republic is at jeopardy because 3 percent of our population speak another language.”