ENGLISH: MAKE IT OFFICIAL

Efforts by some in Congress, led in large part by Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau, to make English the official language of the United State are heating up. Hearings began in the House Wednesday on legislation to accomplish that goal.

Opponents of the proposed legislation claim such a law is unnecessary. After all, only 265 foreign-language documents were produced by the U.S. government over a five-year period out of some 400,000 documents that were checked.

Meanwhile, some communities are taking the official-language issue into their own hands by adopting local ordinances that establish English as the exclusive language for official documents.

While such ordinances have very little real impact, they are indications of the feelings of residents everywhere, including many immigrants and descendants of immigrants who see one language as the key ingredient in making America a true melting pot. One group promoting English as the official language, U.S. English, is headed by a Chilean immigrant.

While official documents are mostly in English already, there is a more insidious promotion of other languages. It is through federal education programs that mandate the use of familiar languages for immigrant students. While local school boards mostly prefer to offer classes in English, they are frequently forced to look for qualified teachers who speak languages far more exotic than Spanish because of the federal requirements. Otherwise they face losing a big chunk of school funding.

No law will ever prevent -- or even attempt to prevent -- the use of familiar languages in family or social settings or even in churches that want to provide easily understood liturgies. But when government money is spent on programs as massive as education, English is the obvious language that unites, rather than divides, the citizens of the United States.

Besides, recent studies show that foreign students who are taught in English rather than their native tongue do better in school. It is time to make English the official language and move on to other pressing issues.