We learned three things from Nathan Moore today. One, Nashville does not employ many physically-present interpreters (they are only found in the Health Department and the courts) but rather we use AT&T’s translation service; Two, we spend $110,00.00 per year for this service; And, three, Eric Crafton’s English Only Amendment will save the city of Nashville approximately $495.00 per year.
Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (along with Executive Order 13166) determines that any local government department receiving federal funds must provide its services in multiple languages, because the law says we cannot disciminate against individuals based on national origin.
Here is the useage breakdown of Metro’s interpretation services (these numbers were provided to me by the mayor’s office)
Health 41.71%
Police / Sheriff 33.13%
Juvenile / Courts 7.95%
Metro Water 6.62%
General Hospital/Bordeaux 9.43%
Nashville Career Advis. 0.71%All of the above departments receive Title VI funds. The total is 99.55%. It appears I was more than generous with my previous estimate of 97%. This means that the passage of English Only could only affect 0.045% of the money spent, which means that Metro would save $495 per year. Or, we could just give back $250 million in federal funds each year.
The election is going to cost somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 to conduct. This means it will take somwhere between 606 years and 1010 years to realize the nominal savings on this election.
Ah, I love the smell of number crunching in the morning.
[...] hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to eliminate services that don’t exist so we can save approximately $495.00 per year. Unnecessary. • English is already the “official and legal language” of Tennessee, [...]
Such legislation appears to be mostly symbolic– would we rather be known as a city united or a city divided by segregation and backwards legislation? Elyssa Durant, Nashville, Tennessee
a strong feeling won’t change anything other than you. we need all the help we can get to tell the truth, overcome the hate, spread the news, and get out the vote.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that enough good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
Janine, Don’t thank me, thank Nathan Moore over at http://moorethoughts.com. He’s the one who’s taking on Crafton and Crisp directly. But you’re right, Crafton has another agenda that’s not as pure as “this is what’s good for Nashville.”
“Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (along with Executive Order 13166) determines that any local government department receiving federal funds must provide its services in multiple languages, because the law says we cannot disciminate against individuals based on national origin.”
Well, yes and no. While it is illegal to discriminate based on national origin, it is an unfortunate INTERPRETATION of that act that services must be provided in any language the individual demands. “Equal treatment” is dealing with everyone fairly in the same language. Dealing with a LEP individual in whatever lenguage the individual demands is “accommodation,” which TITLE VI in no way was intended to mandate.
I don’t think anyone objects to conducting business in various languages as a courtesy to recently-arrived legal immigrants while they learn English. However, it is problemetic when bizarre court interpretations require that governments do so for the lifetime of individuals who choose to never learn English, and whose “advocates” repeatedly file lawsuits because government agencies dare to send letters and notices in the prevailing language of the country in which we all live. If the service could be offered for two years from date of arrival of the immigrant, few would have an issue and there would be no “English Only” movement.
I wonder what other numbers there will be to crunch when the lawsuits come through, should the referendum pass. Crafton and his sidekick Crisp (or is Crafton Crisp’s sidekick? The jury is still out on that one…) not only failed to take a realistic look at the numbers but also failed to look at Title VI requirements and the monies involved there.
I have a strong feeling that is will be defeated and hopefully will be behind our city. Crafton can’t be elected to the Council again, thank goodness. Maybe he could take up teaching Japanese? Now, that would be a worthwhile venture for him!
This is incredible. Apparently Crafton was so focused on getting this ridiculous referendum on the ballot that he never did the math, or maybe he just didn’t know how to. Thanks for this most useful information.