H A number of important issues crystalize in the movement to declare English the official language of the United States; among these are the role of bilingual education in the public schools, the status of minority languages and their speakers, constitutional questions of free speech and civil rights, immigration policy, and language planning and policy. Educators, sociolinguists, and jurists may respond to these issues according to their areas of expertise and provide convincing arguments for one or another position. The data they rely on is historical, legal, demographic, and sociological, and their conclusions and recommendations are usually based on interpretations of statistical data and the evidence of history. In contrast, the discussion of these issues in the popular media and through partisan channels of mass mailings and propagandizing is often reduced to the level of stereotype and caricature. The perception that the status of English in the U.S. is threatened by immigrants "unwilling to assimilate" seems to have struck a responsive chord in the U.S. polity, whose perception of recent events may not be informed by the contrary evidence presented by social scientists and historians. Perspectives on Official English (Perspectives) is a collection of papers from a conference held at Arizona State University in March 1987, the purpose of which was to address "the issue of official English throughout the United States" (p. 5), with emphasis on recent activities in the border states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. The editors hope to stimulate debate because "there has been . .. no clear public debate-or even concern-over the years as to what the language policy of the United States should