Making English the Official Language of the United States

Fifty-two countries throughout the world have designated English as their official language, and the United States still has not. There are many good reasons for English to be the official language, it would save money, make the states more united, and allow for better communication with immigrants.

English is the obvious choice for the official language of the United States as, according to wikipedia.org, 82% of Americans speak only English in their homes, and only 11% speak Spanish. English is the official language in 51 countries, according to us-english.org, and in 30 of those countries English is the only official language.

Making English the official language of the United States would save a lot of money. If forms only had to be printed in English they would be much cheaper to make. Think of how many times each day you see things that are written in multiple languages. If all the doors, signs, instructions, and everything else only had to be written in English it would save businesses, the government, and taxpayers a lot of money. In Los Angeles County alone almost $2 million was spent to make bi-lingual ballots. Bi-lingual education is also very expensive and if there were an official language it would not be necessary. A lot of money would also be saved in welfare for non-English speaking people living in the U. S., if English was the official language people would have more incentive to learn to speak and understand it and because being able to speak English allows people to have higher wages, the government would not have to spend as much to help them because they would be helping themselves.

The individual states throughout the country would become much more united if there was an official language, twenty-eight of the states have already made English their official language and it would bring the states together if they all had the same.

Making English the official language would also increase communication with immigrants. If English was the official language immigrants would be more likely to learn to speak it and understand it. 96% of Americans believe it is important for immigrants to learn English, but Americans are not the only people who feel this way. Almost 66% of foreign born adults said the US should expect immigrants to learn English, and 90% of Latinos said they believe that adult Latinos need to learn English to succeed in the United States.

79% of Americans believe that English should be made the official language of the United States, so why isn't it. There are many benefits and very few drawbacks to making the official language of the United States be English, so what are we waiting for?