Gingrich discusses harm caused by bilingual education and ballots

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich equated bilingual education Saturday with "the language of living in a ghetto" and mocked requirements that ballots be printed in multiple languages.

"The government should quit mandating that various documents be printed in any one of 700 languages depending on who randomly shows up" to vote, said Gingrich, who is considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He made the comments in a speech to the National Federation of Republican Women.

"The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto," Gingrich said to cheers from the crowd of more than 100.

"Citizenship requires passing a test on American history in English. If that's true, then we do not have to create ballots in any language except English," he said.

Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Washington-based Hispanic Education Coalition, which supports bilingual education, said, "The tone of his comments was very hateful. Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto."

He said research has shown "that bilingual education is the best method of teaching English to non-English speakers." Spanish-speakers, he said, know they need to learn English. "There's no resistance to learning English, really, among immigrants, among native-born citizens. Everyone wants to learn English because it's what you need to thrive in this country."

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Zamora is dead wrong. California has mandated English immersion rather than bilingual education in recent years and has seen test scores for Hispanics soar. I graduated from high school in the lower Rio Grande valley of Texas and the successful Hispanics were the ones who spoke good English. They were able to get into the top universities and they went on to successful careers.

Anything that we do that encourages the speaking of English by these people is the most compassionate thing we can do for them and their children. It is not hate, but care that drives Gingrich's message on this issue. Liberals who assume conservatives hate them made the same mistake on welfare reform which has lifted many from poverty and dependency. Liberal hate speech against conservatives attempts to keep these people down, not lift them up.