Presently, the United States has no official language. Yet, only the clueless left deny that participating fully in American life requires proficiency in English. One must know English to read our founding documents in their original 
forms. One must know English to participate fully in the electoral process. On the most fundamental level, one must know English to communicate with the vast majority of American citizens.
The need for Americans to be able to speak English isn’t just an opinion that should be held, it is a policy that should be implemented. At present, proficiency in English is a requirement for any immigrant who wants to obtain citizenship in the United States. However, the policy organization ProEnglish points out that the citizenship tests require only elementary understanding that is far below proficiency.
The most incredible irony on the language issue is that institutional multilingualism hurts the very people that proponents of it are trying to help. Many schools like to segregate non-English speaking students and have them learn in their native tongue. Liberals claim that this is the best way to give them the education they need in order to succeed in America. However, the exact opposite is true. If an immigrant or the child of an immigrant wants to rise above the most menial jobs on the market, they must be able to communicate in English with co-workers and customers. Preventing young people from learning English in America is just like any other form of segregation in that it will prevent them from joining mainstream America and having the chance to succeed. The December 1995 Phyllis Schlafly Report pointed out that this is why an overwhelming 78 percent of Mexican American parents and 83 percent of Cuban American parents wanted their children to be taught in English.
If non-English speaking Americans want to elevate themselves and their children socially and economically, they should learn English. If Americans want unity within our nation, they should support English as our official language.
