GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — A bill designating English as the official language of Wisconsin is being proposed by Republican lawmakers in the state senate.
De Pere State Senator Andre Jacque is heading up that bill, his second time proposing such an idea.
“Unless you learn English, you’re going to be held back in society,” Jacque told WTAQ. “This is something that is really key to the American dream.”
Jacque’s previous attempt at similar legislation came in 2013, when he was in the state assembly. It failed to gain traction.
32 other states have English as their official state language, including Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana. As the official state language, official documents would be written in exclusively in English, with translation into other languages being done only under specific circumstances.
“If you have a document that’s translated into several languages, that’s not really incentivizing learning English,” Jacque said.
The bill would require all Wisconsin ballots to be printed exclusively in English, too. It’s a move Jacque says frees up resources on the local level.
“[Ending] the printing of ballots in other languages is something that I know a number of municipal clerks have told me would be a significant cost savings,” said Jacque.
Jacque says the bill enjoys bipartisan support. Like his 2013 bill, a similar bill in 2009 also stalled out in the legislature.
“It’s something that has broad support across the political spectrum as well as across any number of cultural and ethnic groups,” Jacque said.
A Rasmussen poll released last year shows 77% of American adults think English should be the official language. Neither the state of Wisconsin nor the United States have any official language.
