José E. Serrano: “There seems to be in this country a complete mistaken belief that bilingual education programs and the use of languages…”

“There seems to be in this country a complete mistaken belief that bilingual education programs and the use of languages other than English in the classroom or anywhere else in this society somehow weakens the ability of a country and a society to move forward. One of the problems that we have in this country right now, I believe, is that some people have taken certain very emotional issues and put them forth in a way that scares the American public. And why not? If we tell the American people that bilingual education or any other program in the Nation threatens the use of English as the official language in this country or the language of this society, then certainly good-hearted, well-intentioned, and good patriotic Americans respond to that by saying, oh, my God, there is a problem here that we have to attack. But there is no problem.”