ABSTRACT
Bilingualism on a societal scale is promoted, accordingly, as a reinforcer of ethnic solidarity, as a life-enriching asset, and, most of all, as the ideal way for language minority children to capitalize on a natural resource they already possess—knowledge of a language other than English. This chapter portrays the other side of the language controversy, which is concentrated in the movement to declare English legally as the official language of the United States. Bilingualism is a relatively common social reality, since more countries than not have within their borders people who know two or more languages. For Hakuta, bilingual education is an institutionalized political movement that, in his words, "gives some measure of official public status to the political struggle of language minorities, primarily Hispanics." This baldly political stance has given a boost to the fans of bilingual education and has made Hakuta a favored voice of the bilingual education establishment.
