[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      THE ROTH AMENDMENT TO H.R. 6

  (Mr. ROTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROTH. Mr. Speaker, I will be offering an amendment to the 
education bill to preserve English as our common language.
  My amendment will do away with the costly, bloated Federal program 
that has accomplished nothing in 25 years except impede immigrant 
children from assimilating into the American mainstream.
  Mr. Speaker, Federal bilingual education was designed to teach 
English to the children of immigrants and to bring them into the 
mainstream as quickly as possible. But what have we gotten for our 
hundreds of millions of dollars every year? Dropout rates are still at 
1968 levels. Young people are not learning English and, instead, they 
are being taught bilingualism that they learn in a different language 
and are segregated into linguistic groups.
  We should all abhor this present trend.
  Immigrant children are being condemned to economic second-class 
citizenship by a wasteful Government program. Bilingualism is a 1960's 
phenomenon.
  Bilingualism and bilingual education have not been debated in this 
body for 25 years.
  So I ask you, my colleagues, to join me in this amendment. Let us do 
something for America. Let us do something for our immigrant children.
  Let us live our motto of one Nation, one people. We are all 
Americans, not hyphenated Americans.

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