WASHINGTON House Republicans charged yesterday that bi-lingual education programs harm children, as they began hearings on making English the nation’s official language.

“After 27 years and billions of taxpayer dollars, one thing is clear: Bi-lingual education is a costly failure,” said Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.).

King, a leader of the effort to restrict official uses of foreign languages, said bi-lingual education thwarts new immigrants from learning English.

Nearly 90% of the students enrolled in classes taught in their native languages fail to master English skills, he said.

But an opponent, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), said the measure is unnecessary and the problem is an imaginary one.

“The fallacy is that people do not speak English in this country anymore,” Serrano told the House Education Committee. “The last census showed that 97% of the population speaks English.”

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said: “We are not looking at a real issue here, but perhaps one that has been artificially created to divide our country.”



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