COMMON LANGUAGE: BETTER THAN NOTHING?

News reports have informed Missourians that the General Assembly passed the bill making English the state's official language. Make that not "informed," but "misinformed" of such passage. After four or five years of considering and defeating the official-language bill, lawmakers passed -- not that measure at all -- a rather watered-down version announcing English to be the "most common" language spoken in the state.

The act recognizes English as "the most common language used in the state" and recognizes the necessity of fluency for integration into American culture. The measure further provides that Adult Basic Education programs shall provide English language services; that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shall provide assistance, educational materials and grants to local agencies to provide English language instruction; that the Department of Social Services shall provide grants to programs for resettling refugees and legal immigrants to help arrange day care and transportation that will help these persons access English language services.

All this stops short of, and is to be distinguished from, the English-as-the-official-language bill passed in nearly two dozen other states. These laws make a much stronger statement, requiring all state documents to be in English and essentially ensuring that state business will be conducted in English as well.

It may be that passage of the common language bill was better than nothing even though it isn't as strong as the ones other states are passing. If you really want to see where the wind is blowing, look at California voters' overwhelming passage, three weeks ago, of the initiative ending bilingual education. Bilingual ed may have begun amid high hopes, but it became a special-interest boondoggle for increased funding and an abject failure. The back-to-English movement is a powerful signal expressive of the fact that Americans are taking back our culture from the educational and political hucksters who have failed us all.