Thread: AL: Driver's test at center of language debate

Driver's test at center of language debate

By Kym Klass
kklass@gannett.com

"Prohibido doblar con la luz roja" means "no turn on red" in Spanish.

You can take the Alabama driver's test in Spanish -- and a dozen other languages -- but you can't study for it using the handbook put out by the Department of Public Safety.

The handbook, you see, is written in English only.

And that's perfectly all right with two lawmakers who want Alabama to go back to a driver's test exclusively in English, the official state language.

Advocates for immigrants, though, see the proposal put forth by Republican Sens. Scott Beason and Larry Dixon as unfair and quite possibly unconstitutional. Beason introduced the measure and Dixon is the co-sponsor.

A policy expert for the Alabama affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union thinks the bill targets legal immigrants; the owner of a Hispanic worker placement firm believes immigrants should learn English but need years to really learn the language.

Beason sponsored a bill last year that created a panel to study immigration issues. He served as the panel's vice chairman. On Thursday, the senator from Gardendale introduced another bill that would require immigrants working in Alabama to show a state-issued identification card to prove their legal residency. It also would require employers to verify their employees' residency.

Alabama would be the sixth state to have the English-only test if Beason's bill passes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Similar laws have already been enacted in New Hampshire, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and Maine.

Beason gives two reasons for his English-only position: public safety and implementation of a state constitutional amendment that made English the official state language.

He said protecting motorists and pedestrians is his primary concern.

"It warns people, who are here on a day-to-day basis, that they need to be able to read the road signs," he said. "If I'm overseas, I'll be able to drive for a short amount of time, and they'll be able to here, too. But if you're here for an extended time, you need to know how to read."

Voters approved the state constitutional amendment in 1990; the next year, the Department of Public Safety went from giving the driver's test in 14 languages to giving it exclusively in English.

Seven years later, the department started giving the exam in other languages again after it was sued by a Spanish-speaking resident.

In May 2005, five members of the Virginia-based ProEnglish filed a lawsuit against Gov. Bob Riley. They wanted the department to return to the English-only exam as a way to enforce the amendment.

The case went all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court, which in a 5-4 decision last fall ruled the ProEnglish members had failed to show that administering the test in multiple languages diminishes English as the official state language.

In its decision, however, the high court noted the Legislature could enforce the amendment through appropriate legislation.

"The problem was that the Legislature never really explained how we would enforce the constitutional amendment," Beason said. "There are five states now that have English-only driver's license tests, so it's not a U.S. constitutional amendment question.

"Apparently the courts don't take that as seriously as the people do," he went on. "In this day and age, it's important that we don't make this a dual-language state."

Today, in addition to English, Alabama offers its driver's test in American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi (spoken in Iran), French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese.

Of the almost 164,000 driver's license tests given by the state last year, more than 4,400 were in a language other than English. Fewer than half of those taking the test in a foreign language passed it.

Non-English speakers take the test on electronic kiosks -- sign language users are videotaped -- so the state incurs no additional cost for printing the test in foreign languages, said Capt. Steve Dixon, chief examiner of the Public Safety Department's driver license division.

The department's priority, Dixon said, is not to test a driver's English.

"We're trying to test their knowledge of rules of the road and road signs," he said.

If the concern is public safety, then Dixon and other department officials should make the determination about whether to give the test in multiple languages, said Sam Brooke, law fellow with the ACLU.

"They are the ones who are experts in what will make our roads safe, not the Legislature," Brooke said. "We have had these multi-language tests for years, and I have not heard of any problems related to it."

Regardless of problems, Brooke thinks a return to the English-only test would be illegal as well as unjust.

"What we're talking about is anyone who has a lawful status to be here in the United States," he said. "Unfortunately, what this proposed bill would really do would be targeting the lawful immigrants that should be welcome into our society."

Dixon, the bill's co-sponsor, couldn't disagree more.

"There is nothing vindictive," about the bill, said Dixon, whose district includes part of Montgomery County. "Like our forefathers believe, that to be an American, you must assimilate yourself into the culture and the language."

Sen. Quinton Ross, whose district covers the remainder of Montgomery County, understands the point about helping immigrants understand English, "but I think you have to approach this issue very cautiously," he said, "because you don't want to cut out someone who needs to take this test in a different language."

Fewer than half of the state's senators -- 48 percent -- support the English-only bill, according to a survey done by The Associated Press before the Feb. 5 start of the 2008 session. Those opposed made up 35 percent, and 17 percent were undecided. The breakdown in the House was roughly the same: 51 percent in support, 30 percent opposed and 19 percent undecided.

Like the senators, Louise Medley believes immigrants should assimilate and is doing her part to help them. The retired schoolteacher volunteers once a week at Aldersgate United Methodist Church tutoring Koreans in English.

"They know how to write and they know how to read pretty well," she said. "It's things like idioms and things hidden in our language that we're working on."

Jesse Hernandez knows the workers whom he places through his Hispanic Employment Labor Pool desperately want to learn English, the language of opportunity.

"These people would love to speak English because they could be more marketable, and could be worth $2 to $3 more an hour," he said. "If we're not going to get them out of here, then shouldn't we do as much as we can to help them assimilate? Yes.

"And part of that is helping them to learn to speak English. For a group to assimilate, by and large, you're talking about a full generation."

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/app ... 40306/1001

Immigrants have no excuse not to learn english as our taxpayer dollars are funding tons of programs for them to do so. Our kids education suffers because of the billions of dollars and time spent on special ed teachers to teach them, so NO excuses!

Originally Posted by ohflyingone

Immigrants have no excuse not to learn english as our taxpayer dollars are funding tons of programs for them to do so. Our kids education suffers because of the billions of dollars and time spent on special ed teachers to teach them, so NO excuses!

Let them learn their English at home and not at taxpayers expense or taxpayers lives. What is wrong with America's thinking? English only should be everywhere. Then we wouldn't have all these problems. We should learn by what's happening over in Europe/London. Shria law, that'll be next after this place is 90% Latino that are illegal and breeders.

Has English only been put to an American vote, instead state by state?

No person should be licensed to drive that cannot read english. If they do not read english they could not read road signs and would become a safety hazzard for other drivers. This is not a race thing, it is safety issue.

sorry...but it is a requirement to get citizenship that you speak/write English

I never understood why a person would be allowed to take a drivers test in any language but English to begin with.

Atleast for the moment, every traffic sign I have ever seen has been written in English. Shouldn't we expect in the interest of public safety that if someone wants to excercise the privilege of driving an automobile, they should be expected to have a basic command of the English Language?


I guarantee you that if we made it mandatory driving tests be taken in English, these people would become proficient in English virtually overnight. Atleast enough so to take and pass a drivers exam.

I guess that's asking too much though