State senators last night approved a bill that, at one time, would have required English only driver’s license tests, but as passed, changes nothing about the process.
Murfreesboro Republican Bill Ketron is the bill’s sponsor. He says he wanted to send a message to undocumented immigrants, but made adjustments to keep driver’s license tests in Spanish, German, Korean, and Japanese to accommodate industry concerns.
“The original intent of the bill was English-only, period. We’ve worked with businesses and industries, companies and large manufacturers, who have folks who move here from other countries. They are here temporarily.”
Ketron insists that his bill sends a message that English is the preferred language of Tennessee, and immigrants are expected to learn it.
The House version is on the agenda for the House Budget Subcommittee Wednesday.
Ketron argues that making special arrangements for “English language learners” is a self-defeating strategy:
“The best way to learn English is by total immersion. And the quicker you have to survive by learning that language, just as the immigrants who came through Ellis Island. We didn’t have interpreters; we didn’t have ELL for their kids. If you wanted to survive and you wanted to make a living, you learned the current language that we have here.”
Although sponsors have continued to refer to the bill as an “English-only” bill, it makes no change to the methods currently in use. The Department of Safety may continue to give tests in Spanish, German, Korean and Japanese.
Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis questioned whether the bill sends an appropriate message.
Kyle: “Will passage of this bill change, in any way, the manner in which the test is being administered today?”
Ketron: “Senator Kyle, no it won’t. …this codifies the bill…the current law, as it is. It does not change that in any way.”
Kyle: “That being said, we have to ask…since we’re not changing in any way how the test is being administered, whether we want to be placed on a list of states that has an English-only driving test? Whether that is in the best interests of economic and community development, whether that is in the best interests of our citizens, and I would suggest the answer to that is ‘No’.”
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM