"Your thoughts are important to me, so please let me know if you think the drivers license exams should be taken in English only."
Apparently, she has no interest in hearing from anyone who might disagree with her:
When I took a child to the State Highway Patrol testing facility in St. Charles to get her driver-learner’s permit, I asked one of the employees if it is true that people can take the test in foreign languages. She told me that the test has been given in up to 27 languages! This surprised me because the level of fluency in English necessary to take a test still doesn’t demand that you are fully functional in all areas of the English language.
Last night we had a public hearing on my bill, HB 1231, which allows drivers licenses to be administered only in English. When I drafted the bill, I noticed that there was nothing in Missouri statues that allow these tests to be administered in any foreign language. I am sure that it never occurred to the legislators -who wrote the rules on driver-license testing- that any one would question whether it has to be in English. With the absence of any prohibition, our state started administering these tests in any language so long as the license-applicant provides the interpreter. Officially, Missouri prints the written license test in 12 different languages.
Those having trouble learning our language are not necessarily doing so well on these tests even with their interpreters. The following are the latest statistics provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol:
Administered 4406 tests in Spanish; 3309 failed
Administered 2003 tests in Chinese; 1260 failed
Administered 1128 in Vietnamese; 859 failed
Administered 427 tests in Russian; 326 failed
Administered 65 tests in Italian; 60 failed
Administered 7 tests in Greek; 5 failed
This is a safety issue. If a person cannot speak enough English to follow basic commands such as “Pull over”, “Parallel Park”, “Back Up”, “Stop”, how do we know they can understand our requirement for vehicle insurance or read the English road signs? Further, for the sake of the safety of the foreigner, what if he or she were in an accident and could not tell the police officer what happened? Getting a driver’s license is a privilege, not a right. It is appropriate for us to confer this privilege on those who can navigate through our culture enough to pass this test.
My sister moved to France and had to learn the French language before she could take the test. Everybody who comes to America knows ahead of time that we are an English speaking country and they expect to learn our language.
Since persons taking the test had a translator’s help to overcome the language barrier, we can only conclude that factors beyond language were involved. Operating a motor vehicle can be dangerous, and it is important to our safety to keep our standards high. We need to be patient, kind and compassionate to those who come from foreign countries. My grandfather came from a foreign country, but he leaned to speak English and became far more successful as a result. Loving our neighbor might mean helping him learn our language.
Your thoughts are important to me, so please let me know if you think the drivers license exams should be taken in English only.
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