State Sen. Steve King, R-District 6, met Wednesday night with members of Iowa State’s Linguistics Program and Bruce Horner, associate professor of English at Drake University, to discuss the possibility of making English the state’s official language.

“English is the common form of the communications currency. I believe it is the significant element on why the American Dream has been so successful,” King said during the forum.

The bill that King is proposing, Senate File 54, states “the official language of the state shall be the English language, and all official proceedings, records and publications shall be in the English language.”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with the private sector. It doesn’t have anything to do with what you speak on the street,” he said.

Horner, member of the Iowa Immigrants Rights Project, said he believes that this legislation is unnecessary and harmful.

“It will have detrimental effects on the well-being of the state and our nation,” he said.

Horner said immigrants to the United States, as well as people around the world, are aware of the importance of the English language.

“Immigrants to the United States not only recognize the value of fluency but would like to achieve such fluency and are in fact learning English at the same pace, if not more rapidly, than immigrants of the past,” Horner said.

Clyde Thogmartin, associate professor of French linguistics at ISU, also spoke against the legislation, saying America is different from most European countries in which language has greater importance.

“I think we are a different kind of country than the countries that have official languages. The whole basis of our country is different,” Thogmartin said.

Many arguments against the legislation said it is not needed because nothing is wrong at the present time.

Horner used numbers as an analogy. “The Base Ten number system is standard in Iowa; however, declaring it that would not improve math scores in Iowa students.”

King said he is concerned about what America will be like in the future.

“What will Iowa look like, or the United States look like, if we identify ourselves by groups rather than Americans or Iowans,” he said. “I see us as Iowans first, Americans second, and then the blend of all cultures.”

Horner’s solution is to keep English tied in with the native languages.

“We should be doing all we can to maintain and increase fluency in other languages while also providing the necessary training in English fluency. In other words, we should adopt not the policy of English Only but English Plus,” he said.

Horner also believes that the state will be hurt economically if such legislation is passed.

“Iowa is experiencing a shortage of workers and a net loss in population and therefore needs to be welcoming people to this state and not frightening them away,” he said.