WASHINGTON It was conceived as a way to reach out to millions outside the American mainstream. It is now condemned by the conservative revolution as “linguistic welfare.”

Republicans in Congress and on the presidential trail are embracing a movement to reverse a quarter-century of government policies that accommodate foreign-language speakers.

Brushing aside liberal critics who contend the English-only movement is a form of “immigrant-bashing,” a House subcommittee has scheduled hearings in mid-October on a range of proposals including two that take direct aim at bi-lingual education.

“It’s a cultural trend in this country which I think is dangerous,” said the bill’s sponsor, Long Island Republican Rep. Pete King. “To many people, it’s become a metaphor for liberal policies that have failed.”

King’s bill would end mandates and $ 240 million in federal aid for bi-lingual education, though it would let states and localities pay for it on their own.

New York City’s public schools have some 150,000 children in bi-lingual classes a statistic that has not escaped notice by the method’s foes.

“New York City, like most states and cities, employs an entire staff of bi-lingual bureaucrats whose job it is to convince reluctant parents of the virtues of bi-lingual education,” said Rep. Toby Roth (R-Wis.), whose bill would ban it outright.

The drive has the support of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.

In a Labor Day speech to the American Legion, Dole said: “With all the divisive forces tearing at our country, we need the glue of language to help hold us together. If we want to insure that all our children have the same opportunities in life, alternative language education should stop and English should be acknowledged once and for all as the official language of the United States.”

According to a new poll by U.S. News & World Report, 73% of Americans think English should be the official language of government.

To Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), the English crusade is a “meanspirited” attack on a nonproblem a baseless fear that multi-lingual policies dampen the desire of new arrivals to learn English.

The campaign against multi-lingualism, Serrano charged, “is not being done to save us from harm. It’s not being done to save our children. It’s being done for cheap political trickery to get your so-called angry white male even angrier now.”

Both sides agree that English is, and should remain, the dominant American language.

King says he’s no immigrant-basher he opposed California’s Proposition 187, which limits benefits to illegal immigrants, and his party’s move to deny all immigrants welfare benefits. But multi-lingual policies, he said, make it easy for people “to stay in their own language ghetto . . . we’re not encouraging people to learn English.”

Serrano said the appeal, and necessity, of being able to function in mainstream, English-speaking American society is incentive enough.

The official English movement has been winning battles on the state and local level for more then a decade.

The largest group, U.S. English, claims 640,000 members, and is strongest in California, where one in four residents is foreign-born. Its chairman, Mauro Mujica, a Chilean-born architect, adopted the term “linguistic welfare” to attack policies that create “dependence” on multi-lingual services instead of sending a clear message to immigrants that “you must know English to fully participate in the process of government.”

A law declaring English official was signed in Arkansas in 1987 by then-Gov. Clinton. That has been unsettling to the movement’s opponents, who worry Clinton might allow a new bill passed by Congress to stand.

But Serrano said White House adviser George Stephanopoulos recently told him, “I guarantee you that he [President Clinton] will veto a bill if it comes to his desk.”



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