I expect more out of the Iowa State Daily than reprehensible columns like Leslie Heuer’s inaccurate piece on an official language in the United States.

Heuer’s ignorance is crystal clear in her statement that official English organizations were founded “for the purpose of advocating English as the only acceptable language of communication in the public, private, business and educational settings.”

I challenge Ms. Heuer to find a single piece of U.S. English-supported legislation that would infringe upon an individual’s right to speak English in the home or on a work break, would prohibit schools from teaching foreign languages or kick non-English speakers to the curb.

The group “Official English” is about the language of the government, never about breaching personal rights.

Yet Ms. Heuer’s knowledge of the facts, or lack thereof, doesn’t end there. The number of states that have adopted English as an official language in the past decade isn’t 26, it’s 10.

This list includes Iowa, which passed Senate File 165 with Gov. Tom Vilsack’s signature in March 2002.

We can only imagine why the so-called research that has “consistently shown the academic benefits of bilingual instruction” wasn’t cited, or on what basis Ms. Heuer swears minority students fail only “because of too little instruction in their native language.”

Based on this logic, all African-American and Caucasian children should be flying through with straight A’s.

Here are the facts. The group “U.S. English” was founded by an immigrant, is run by an immigrant and has nearly one-third of its membership made up of bilingual individuals.

Perhaps this should come as no surprise, given that immigrants are often the most enthusiastic supporters of common language legislation.

Said one immigrant parent in Arizona, “I expect the school to teach my boy in English, so he can benefit in the future … Spanish he’ll learn at home.”

English immersion is so widely welcomed in Arizona that the Nogales and Douglas school districts, both of which sit on the border with Mexico, failed to receive a single request for a bilingual education waiver in 2003.

We have always been and should always remain a proud, diverse country united by one common language.

Unfortunately, Ms. Heuer’s generalized, sweeping statements and her shameful knowledge of facts are a blight upon the Iowa State Daily and the beliefs of our proud, diverse people.

Chad Becker

Washington, D.C.