The "English Only" movement promotes the enactment of legislation that restricts or prohibits the use of languages other than English by government agencies and, in some cases, by private businesses. The movement has met with some success; "English Only" laws having been passed in several states. And, for the first time in the nation's history, an English Language Amendment to the Constitution has been proposed. .
English should only be adopted for legal and professional matters. This includes voting and tax documents. When it comes time for these item to be filled out and reviewed, it will become clearer and easier. Millions of tax dollars are wasted on multi-lingual legal documents. This will save the American people's money and when it comes to time for voting, there will not be such a mix up in elections, i.e. Florida, due to people claiming not to understand the ballots. Some didn't understand the ballots itself, but some claimed to have grabbed the wrong one due to the high Spanish speaking population in this state. If this idea becomes a law, drastic changes will have to be made. For instance, currently 96% of Americans speak English fluently, which leaves roughly ten million residents that are not fluent in English. This means that there will have to be an incline in bilingual teachers and facilities to teach these people English. Another point that needs to be considered is who will pay for it. Seeing that it is only affecting legal documents and procedures, I believe that the government should pay for it. .
On the state level, Twenty-six states have English as their official language and several more are considering similar legislation. In the last four years, Alaska, Georgia, Montana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming and Missouri have enacted some form of official English legislation. Currently, a group by the name of U.S. English is working with members of the House of Representatives and Senate to help pass official English in Congress.
