2009 House Bill 4500: Establish English as official state language

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Introduced by Rep. Kenneth Kurtz (R) on March 4, 2009, to establish English as the official state language. This would apply to governmental communications, but not the private sector. It would establish that state agencies and local governments are not required to provide documents, public written materials, or website content in any language other than English, but does not prohibit them from doing so.
- Referred to the House Judiciary Committee on March 4, 2009.

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1) Re: 2009 House Bill 4500 (Establish English as official state language ) by FreeSpeaker on April 23, 2009

Ballot issues make an expensive way to do lawmaking. Leave this one to the legislature. The way this bill is written, I see it doing no harm and it may help do some good down the road.

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2) Re: 2009 House Bill 4500 (Establish English as official state language ) by Al T on April 23, 2009

On many of the bills our state legislators author and some that are voted on I feel that they are doing what they feel their constituents would like to see concerning these domestic issues. If they do not act in the best interest of the majority of the population they need to be held accountable and I am sure next year we will see that happen on the state and federal fronts.

The federal government considers the U.S. as a global economy and that is not the feeling of many many citizens of this country and state, especially those that have lost their jobs due to foreign placement of those jobs. When the U.S. was more of an isolationist economy and not in the business of sharing prosperity with other countries when are economy was so bad we were a thriving economy.

Concerning the past exodos of ethnic groups that is the past and now is now. Concerning the youngster and my reaction to the instructor telling me that they will have to know spanish, being that it will be the primary language in the country, an alarm goes up. Young kids can absorb alot and as long as they have their 1,2,3's and A'B'C's in place as far as their daily life and school work they do have the capacity to learn a foreign language after the fact. Instead of focusing on learning foreign languages when that young we can imagine how progressive they would be by learning how to be a child and then scholastic achievement as they grow, with English being their primary communications and learning tool. For this college instructor to tell me that kids will have to learn spanish because it will be the primary language is the foundation for my feelings of the importance of having an official language and that being English.

If it takes a legislative bill to get it done I am sure that the general public would not have a problem with it. If they can not get it done then they need to get a proposal on the ballots for the next elections. I am speaking of a state proposal, without federal intervention, such as the direction of ammendment to protect our firearms and sovernty in this state in our state contitution. The post above from the author that threw and ax at right wing extremist and how they know nothing, tells me that it should be law concerning the best interest of our our states sovernty including English as our official language.

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3) Re: 2009 House Bill 4500 (Establish English as official state language ) by gypsy on April 23, 2009

I agree with your suggestion that this is a good issue to be but on the ballot as a referendum. But this is a proposed bill, and as such I cannot agree it should be passed by the legislature.

That young child was more than capable of learning another lanquage, and the college instructor was correct in trying to teach her. At that age, a childs mind is like a sponge, ready to soak up everything. Being bi-lingual would be a huge advantage to her in her adult life, as I'm sure you've heard we are a "global" economy now.

We are not giving up any of our sovereignty by not having an official lanquage, as I have pointed out, we have gone through many immigrations over the years, and remain quite sovereign.

I appreciate you pointing out that the Native Americans migrated here. We did also, and going back even farther into human history, all humans originally migrated from Africa. Migration is in our genes, and the Scots/Irish have been great migraters.

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