COLUMBIA, Mo.—President Reagan said Thursday that American teachers should use English in the classroom even if that is not the native language of their students.

Referring to non-English-speaking students, Reagan said, “if they’re going to be in America, they have to learn our language in order to get along.

“I will do anything that I can to help to get rid of any federal interference that is trying to force local school districts to continue teaching students in their native tongue,” Reagan told an educational conference here.

“Their job is to teach them English,” he said.

Reagan said that California _ where he served two terms as governor _ was in the forefront of bilingual education.

He said the goal had been to provide teachers adept in both English and Spanish “so that if a student was not getting what he should get, they (the teacher) could find out whether it was the language difficulty or not.”Reagan added that the federal government “has a part that is played in this, and not a good part _ that we have come to the point where we’re talking about teaching both languages and teaching students in their native language instead of that the move should be, if they’re going to be in America, they have to learn our language in order to get along.””Well, I think it’s time we started looking at the regulations and getting back to the main subject, which is, yes, let’s get everybody to talk in our language,” the president said.



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