As Washington Pushes ‘English-Only,’ New Polling Shows Middle America Embracing Bilingualism

As is often the case, the executive order was primarily symbolic. In March 2025, President Trump signed it, removing non-binding federal guidelines on language access services and designating English as the official language of the United States. In July, the administration issued new orders directing federal agencies to cease providing translation services and to “prioritize English.” The policy, which was a clear declaration of a long-held conservative position that had been waiting for the right opportunity to become official federal posture, appeared to arrive with the assured energy of a debate that had been won.

According to the polling, the debate was already over. Just not in the way Washington seems to think.
94% of families who speak a language other than English at home say it is “very” or “extremely” important that their child grow up speaking multiple languages, according to a November 2025 study published by The Century Foundation. The study was based on focus groups with 64 Latino families throughout California and a survey of 1,000 diverse families statewide. Although that number is substantial, it is not the most unexpected. 55% of monolingual English-speaking families agreed, which is a more startling finding. Families rated their interest in bilingual education programs an average of 7.9 on a scale of 1 to 10. Over 75% of respondents gave their interest a score of seven or higher. Forty percent of Latino families rated bilingual education as perfect. These are not the numbers of people who are waiting for assurances that English is safe.

Despite how its supporters present it, the current English-only movement is not a novel concept. It’s a resurgence of a movement that last saw significant action in the 1990s when conservatives in California, Massachusetts, and Arizona pushed to make English the official language in state constitutions and outlaw bilingual education in public schools. In his 1995 presidential campaign, Bob Dole demanded an end to “alternative language education” on the grounds that language was the essential unifying factor for a diverse nation. ProEnglish and other groups were publicly linking their fight against multilingualism to more general anti-immigrant and anti-multicultural objectives. For a while, the initiatives were quite successful; California outlawed bilingual education for eighteen years before voters overturned the ban. However, the political tide as a whole shifted. States that had implemented English-only policies withdrew or reversed them. The general public moved on. In a nation where 67.8 million people speak a language other than English at home, the same framework is now once again used in federal policy.

English-Only vs. Bilingualism in America — Key Facts & Policy Context

America has always been more multilingual than its official memory acknowledges, which is a historical irony worth considering. Long into the 20th century, German-language newspapers were published in Texas. For generations, Navajo-language radio stations have been broadcasting nonstop. The nation’s multilingual public figures, athletes, and musicians are not outliers; rather, the data consistently supports this. In 2026, Bad Bunny’s Spanish-language performance at the Super Bowl doesn’t need an explanation. It also doesn’t require defense.

There’s a feeling that the administration is performing an outdated play in front of a genuinely changed audience as the discrepancy between what Washington is claiming and what American families are telling pollsters grows. This is not to argue that worries about language cohesion are fictitious or should be disregarded; rather, they are a longstanding aspect of American political culture and represent genuine concerns about national identity and belonging. However, there is a significant distinction between encouraging kids to learn English and prohibiting them from speaking any other language. According to data from the Century Foundation, the majority of American families, including those who speak only English, do not consider those to be the same.

There are real practical stakes as well. Linguistically diverse student populations are essential for dual-language immersion programs, one of the most well-liked and academically successful educational innovations of the last 20 years. English learners in bilingual programs are more likely than their peers in English-only instruction to become proficient in the language by middle school, according to research from the Century Foundation. This finding directly challenges the fundamental justification of the English-only position. Children of immigrants are already more likely to miss school in districts across the nation as a result of the administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. According to one study, ICE raids in California resulted in 81,000 lost school days. Every family whose children are enrolled in dual-language schools will be impacted, regardless of the language spoken at home, if immigration continues to decline and the multilingual student populations that make these programs viable thin out.

It’s still unclear if the current English-only movement will follow the path of its predecessors from the 1990s, eventually waning as the demographic and cultural arithmetic reasserts itself, or if the polling gap between public opinion and federal language policy will produce significant political pressure. These surveys’ families aren’t waiting for the argument to be settled. They are enrolling their kids in dual-language programs, giving bilingual education a score close to ten out of ten, and showing excitement for a multilingual future that Washington is currently making a significant effort to discourage.