California Braces For Change With English As Official Language

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25—California is preparing to translate into practical terms a new law making English the official language of the state, a measure that could lead to sweeping changes in the way schools do their teaching and the way the state conducts its daily business.

The new California law, which changes the State Constitution, orders the Legislature to ”make no law which diminishes or ignores the role of English” and permits any individual or business to sue to enforce the law. One immediate effect, say its critics, is that the state could be tied up in endless, costly legal battles.

Critics, primarily Hispanic and Asian civil rights groups, assail the new law as too broad and say divisiveness and resentment could result if citizens are required to use only English when dealing with the police, the courts and health agencies.

Some Exemptions May Be Made

But legislators who support making English the state’s official language say they will soon propose legislation to exempt the police, court translators and interpreters and health services from the provision. Nonetheless, the State Personnel Board says that about two million residents could be denied access to state services if bilingual services in state governments are eliminated.

Under a bilingual services law adopted in 1973, the state is required to employ bilingual staff members or interpreters when 5 percent or more of the clientele seeking state services do not speak English. There are 3,364 state positions that require bilingual proficiency.

The state also employs more than 2,600 other bilingual workers who help people who do not speak English to deal with the state’s labor, vehicle and unemployment services.

The California Mandate

U.S. English, the national organization that poured thousands of dollars into financing the campaign for the measure listed on the California ballot as Proposition 63, is buoyed by what it calls the California mandate: The state’s voters approved the measure by a 3-to-1 margin on Nov. 4, with 2,059,746 voting for it and 729,440 voting against it.

Besides seeking possible changes in state education, jobs and business forms, the California chapter of U.S. English has begun an economic campaign. It has protested publication of the Spanish language Yellow Pages and has started to identify large companies that spend millions of dollars a year in advertising revenue to reach the growing Hispanic market in the United States.

Assemblyman Frank Hill, an honorary vice chairman of the English campaign in California who is expected to have a key role in putting the law into effect, said: ”Prop 63 will be the forefront of the nationwide focus to make English the nation’s official language. And the states will lead the way.” Critics of the bill, including Gov. George Deukmejian, Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles and State Attorney General John Van de Kamp, said the proposition seemed simple and symbolic.

Drives in Other States Planned

But they and civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say the import of the new law is far from simple. The critics contend that it is a mask to hide anti-immigrant sentiment, which they say is particularly strong in California because it has absorbed a large share of the nation’s recent Hispanic and Asian immigrants.

Officials of U.S. English said voter-initiated referendums would be tried in other states, including Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Wisconsin.

U.S. English was started in 1983 by Dr. John H. Tanton, an ophthalmologist from Petoskey, Mich., who is now the organization’s chairman, and S. I. Hayakawa, the semanticist who is a former Republican Senator from California. The organization says that in less than four years it has attracted more than 200,000 dues-paying members, about half of whom live in California.

Within days of the law’s passage, Mr. Hill, a Republican from Whittier, began preparing legislation to translate the new amendment into practical terms.

Legislation to Be Submitted

Mr. Hill said he would submit legislation in the 1987 session to require that drivers’ tests, welfare applications and student financial aid forms at state universities be written in English only. He said he was also sending a letter to all state department heads asking them to send him ”copies of forms of business conducted other than in English.”

Opponents of the amendment said they would soon mount a legal and legislative challenge to the new law.

”We do not believe that the ability to be protected by the State Constitution should be dependent upon proficiency in English,” said Jessica Fiske, chapter director of the A.C.L.U. in Los Angeles, which coordinated opposition to the amendment.

Ms. Fiske said her organization would soon decide whether to file a lawsuit challenging the new law on the ground that it violates the First Amendment and the right of equal protection under the United States Constitution. She said the groups would also wage a campaign in Sacramento to oppose Mr. Hill’s push toward making the state conduct its business in English only.

Battle Over Bilingual Education

Both sides of the dispute agree that the state’s bilingual education program, which reaches nearly 600,000 children in California, will be the main battleground when the Legislature convenes next year.

By coincidence, the current bilingual education law expires next year, and Mr. Deukmejian has already vetoed a Democratic-sponsored bill that would have extended the current program for another five years.

”We are going to be spending a lot of energy on this, right off the bat,” Mr. Hill said in an interview. ”We want to change the focus of bilingual education. We support it, but we don’t want instruction in all subjects in a student’s native language.”

Ms. Fiske said the civil liberties group and others would lobby the Legislature to keep the current bilingual program. ”People do better in English if they learn it through their primary language,” she said.

There was one area, however, on which both Ms. Fiske and Mr. Hill agreed. She said she would support his bill to provide at least $5 million to teach English to 40,000 people in California who are unable to attend school now because of overcrowding.

Other education experts say that more than $20 million will be needed to expand funds for adult second-language programs, particularly since the new immigration law makes it possible for illegal aliens to become lawful permanent residents if they demonstrate a ”minimal understanding” of the English language.



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