America has been debating on having an official language for years. In fact, thirty-one U.S. states currently have English as their official language. Through the debate, there have not only been arguments on making English the official language, but also arguments on if America should consider treating Ebonics as a second language and if the country should ban the over 300 languages spoken in the United States. But during all of the debating, one question keeps rising: “if such a large portion of our population speaks one language, why do we have such heated debates on the issue of language rights?” (Lee 10). 97% of Americans speak English and a little more than 60.6 million speak a different language at home. About 14 million of the population who don’t speak English at home are children and in many English-only states, lawmakers are changing the way these children are learning English. Lowell, Massachusetts recently claimed English as their official language. Many non-English-speaking immigrants have been moving to Lowell in fact, of the town’s 100,000 people population, 40 percent are Asian or Hispanic. Lawmakers say that “...the measure was not meant to divide the city, but to ensure that English did not become a lost language within the city 's boundaries.” (Manahan 42). Lowell’s mayor has been arguing against any unnecessary racial tension the law has brought and lawmakers in the state fear this law, since it is vague, will only cause more personal discrimination on