The ELPAC Report July 2004

Generations of Language Problems
Born in the Nation's Capital, But Can't Speak English

City officials in the District of Columbia released a study in June intended to demonstrate why they needed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on translators and multi-lingual services. The Washington Post newspaper reported that the study found that "with immigration soaring, the number of people with limited English skills rose by nearly a third in the 1990s." In suburban areas, the rise was much sharper, with the population of limited-English speakers more than doubling in wealthy Fairfax County, Virginia.

But hidden in the study was a revealing statistic: "One in five city residents who do not speak English very well was born in the United States."

Most of these native-born non-English-speakers are the products of the American system of bilingual education, where a student can attend school for many years and still not learn English

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