The economic cost to native-born Americans of limited English language proficiency

In recent years there has been much concern over the consequences of a variety of educational programs related to language issues, including bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language programs. These concerns have been legal and educational. The legal concerns are over the access students have to various types of schooling, and have been played out in the courts, legislative bodies and in referendums. The educational concerns have frequently focused on the extent to which various types of schooling either enhance or retard English language proficiency and proficiency in the students’ origin or ancestral language. This chapter focuses on another dimension of the public policy issue that, ultimately, may prove to be a critical, but hitherto largely unexplored, aspect of the debate. Namely, to what extent do native-born Americans with limited English language proficiency, but with some degree of proficiency in another language, incur economic costs.