It was also a matter of pride with the many generations of immigrants from Europe that their children become proficient in their new country's language. If you want to see what can happen when two languages attempt to dominate a country, you have only to look at the problems generated in Canada. There's no way to tell that there's any consistency by circumstance that what happens in Canada will happen here. For one, French is heavily concentrated to a region of Canada, whereas English is widely spoken.
People speak Spanish everywhere in America.
There's no pro-regional pride here as in Canada that would indicate we would have any similiar problems. The cost is terribly high also when one considers the need to deal with children who know no English. California is a prime example of how costly this can be. Well, I'm of the opinion that it's a two way street. Personally, if I were in a bilingual situation, the solution is obvious to me and that's learn the other language myself.