Dallas County requires school administrators to learn Spanish – or else

Texas plan gives principals three years, makes no requests of parents

Late Thursday night, a 5-4 vote of the Dallas school board made this Texas county the first in the nation to require administrators to learn Spanish or lose their jobs. The controversial measure, proposed in order to help principals better communicate with immigrant parents, is the latest episode in a growing movement of misguided language outreach.

“The Dallas school board’s extreme approach sends the unmistakable message that English is optional in the area,” explained Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of the Board of U.S. English, Inc. “This is part of a disturbing trend where English-speaking Americans are being asked to learn a foreign language, while nothing is expected out of non-English speaking immigrants to America. Instead of forcing their administrators to learn the language of immigrants, the district should open its facilities to programs that teach immigrant parents English.”

Dallas’ proposal is noteworthy for who it excludes. While Dallas County ranks 138th in the nation in the percentage of residents who speak Spanish at home, it is ninth in the concentration of Vietnamese speakers, eighth in the concentration of Urdu speakers, and 14th in the concentration of Korean speakers. In all, 123,000, or six percent of Dallas County residents, speak a language other than English or Spanish at home. The “outreach” program makes no attempt to reach other immigrant families.

“Critics of official language policies continually point out that it takes adults extra time to learn a foreign language,” continued Mujica. “In this case, the school district is forcing full-time working adults to become proficient in Spanish in three years or lose their jobs. But the policy makes not even the gentlest demands that immigrant parents learn the language of this country.”

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.