Date: 1984-04-03
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I am honored to join with my colleagues today who are discussing the Bilingual Education Act of 1984. There is no question that much needs to be done to help the large numbers of students who are growing up in nonEnglish speaking boniis. We as a society owe it to ourselves to educate these children and help them make the transition into an English speaking world. There are numerous programs through which we can help these children make the transition. Why then. you might ask. do we stress bilingual education rather than other programs to help the nonEnglish speaking child. I raise this question. not to debate educational philosophies. but rather to raise the subject of what is in the best long run interest of the United States. The prosperity of the United States depends on the ability to compete in the world market for goods and services and on the prosperity of its trading partners. Even though English is rapidly becoming the accepted language of international commerce and diplomney. the United States is handicapped if it falls to understand the language. culture. and history of other societies. What. you ask. does this have to do with bilingual education? Language ability and the understanding of different cultures has everything to do with our ability to compete in the world economy and influence world events. At the root of bilingual education is the philosophy that children are more easily taught in the language with which they are most comfortable. In many cases this will require the schools to first reinforce the childs ability in a foreign language while simultaneously teaching English. In addition to teaching in a foreign language. the bilingual method effectively increases the familiarity and respect a child has for a foreign culture. One aspect often ignored in discussions of bilingual education is the fact that many English speaking children learn foreign languages through the same bilingual education instruction which helps the nonEnglish speaking child make the transition to English. If the United States is to retain its role as a world political power and regain its position in world trade. we will need people who are conversant in many foreign languages and cultures. Our Nation is blessed with immigrants from many countries. While we must help the immigrants and nonEnglish speaking native born make the transition to English. we should also think of those people as a language resource. Our ability to export our goods and knowhow only partially depends on having the better product. We must also know how to sell the goods in foreign markets. As one who grew up in a bilingual environment. the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I can attest to the value of speaking more than one language. Since being elected to Congress I have had the opportunity to meet with many foreign officials on my own visits overseas and right here in Washington. My fluency in just one romance language. Spanish. has opened many doors that might otherwise have remained closed and helped me gan a greater understanding of foreign interests. In addition. having grown up speaking two languages I have found it easier to learn additional languages. This has opened even more doors. My duties as chairman of the Committee or. Agriculture have only reinforced my belief that our Nation suffers from monolingualism. It is much easier to sell agricultural products to our trading partners if we can speak to them in their own language rather than depending on them to speak English. We need more. not fewer people who are fluent in Chinese. Arabic. Spanish. Vietnamese. and all the other languages of the world. We need bilingual engineers. doctors. computer programers. scientists. salesmen. and corporate managers who can help sell American goods and services throughout the world. Bilingual education should not be considered a threat to our American way of life but rather an investment in our human resources. Due to the miracle of modern communications and travel we do not have the luxury of remaining monolingual.e a Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker. I would like to express my strong support for the reauthorization of the Bilingual Education Act and commend Mr. Kildee and Mr. Corrada for their efforts in carefully assembling this critical legislation. This bill provides important measures toward eradicating discrimination in education in our American schools. Inequality in education cannot be tolerated for our Nations national security. economic strength and quality of life is dependent upon the literacy of all its citizens. The Bilingual Education Act addresses the need for improving the quality and equality of education for the 3.6 million children in the United States of limited English proficiency. We cannot overcome traditional low educational achievements and high dropout rates of language minority students unless we build on the proficiency skills these children bring to the classroom. The bilingual education program provides the opportunity for these children to assimilate. participate. and contribute to our society through enhancement of their linguistic and conceptual competency of the English language. In my State of California alone. bilingual education programs serve 88.689 students of limited English proficiency. As the number of these students increases daily. it becomes evident that we are losing the full depth of our Nations potential by failing to utilize their talents and capabilities. It is Imperative that we educate and cultivate this untapped resource. Our investment in bilingual education today can only reap benefits for our communities. cur States and our Nation as a whole tomorrow.e