"In reality, Latinos, both native-born and newly-arrived, embrace English and place tremendous importance and value upon attaining English-language fluency. By wide margins, Latinos believe that learning English is essential for participation and success in American society. A recent survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found that an overwhelming majority of Latinos – 92 percent – believes that teaching English to the children of immigrants is very important, a percentage far higher than other respondents.

"Indeed, Latino immigrants are learning English, and doing so as quickly as or more quickly than previous generations of immigrants. As is typical of immigrant populations in the United States, by the third generation most Latinos tend to speak only English. Latino immigrants, then, do not need official English or English-only legislation to coerce them into learning English; that desire and determination already runs deep in the Latino community. They do, however, require the means and the opportunity. English Language Learners are too often hampered in their efforts to achieve full proficiency."

While English uniformity is touted under the guise of "efficiency" and "unity," English-only advocates tend to ignore the systemic obstacles to attaining English proficiency. In a letter to the Obama administration, the Institute for Language and Education Policy outlined the barriers English-language-learners face in the education system, in part due to constraints imposed by No Child Left Behind:

"Neglect is evident at all levels: federal, state, and local. Far too little is being done to ensure that ELLs are provided an adequate share of school funding, appropriately trained teachers, valid assessments, and research-based programs to promote English acquisition and academic achievement.

"Failure to address these needs has perpetuated a shameful, inequitable, two-tier system of public education. The Urban Institute (Cosentino de Cohen et al., 2005) reports that 70 percent of ELLs are now concentrated in majority-minority, under-resourced schools and in classrooms where teachers have considerably less experience and fewer credentials than those serving English-proficient students."

The tens of thousands of Nashville voters who struck down English First made a clear statement on Thursday: communities are never unified by elevating the voices of some while silencing others.