Pros And Cons Of Making English The Official Language

As the number of states that make English their official language grows to thirty-one, the issue of enacting legislation to make English the official language has grown. In 1996, the House of Representatives passed a law to make English the official language but was stopped in the senate. Now emerging are conservative, pro-English groups like English Only who are swaying public opinion to make English an official language. Now over 20 years later the support for English as the official language has increased among American voters to an overwhelming 87% (English as an Official Language in the U.S.: Pros and Cons). However, are voters making the right choice, is making English the official language a good idea? English should not be the official

In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the government signed a bill commanding that no matter the race, gender, religion, or national origin of a person they cannot be discriminated by the government or a government agency. Making English the official language would be a form of discrimination to those who speak other languages. If there is an official language, then it would mean that the ballots would be written in the official language which would deter those of other languages, especially new voters. Even worse is that with English as an official language this would end the funding to translators who today help translate ballots and legal documents to those who speak another language. Restricting someone’s right to vote, refranchising someone, is terrible and destroys one of the biggest social responsibilities that this country offers. In addition, if the language of the government becomes officially English this would cause the government to discriminate on those of other national origin, as people from other countries don’t always speak English. This is a blatant attack on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Making English the official language would inhibit the rights of those who speak other

The largest language spoken in the United States after English is Spanish, with more than 37 million speakers (Brunner). This makes the United States have the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, only behind Mexico and in front of Spain itself. This number has been growing in The United States at an exponential rate. “[Spanish] is also one of the fastest-growing, with the number of speakers up 233% since 1980” (Lopez, Gonzalez-Barrera). As this trend continues over the years the 17% of the population, which speaks Spanish in the United States may increase to a significant enough amount that it could rival that of English. Several years down the line, the most commonly spoken language could become Spanish. As the growth of Spanish increases in the United States, it seems illogical to make only English the official language. If there were to be an official language then Spanish and English should both become official, forcing businesses to put all their products in both English and Spanish.

It's just outright disrespectful to growing minorities to make English an official language and could harm the economy. In order to increase the equality and progress the nation, it more fitting to make the United States have no official language and not discriminate or deter from completing their dreams in America. As times change and minorities grow and majorities decrease, the