Speech #890054502

As Senators are aware. many of our citizens in the State of New York are of Puerto Rican origin. They received their education in schools in Puerto Rico where classes are conducted in Spanisha situation which exists because of the policy of cultural autonomy for Puerto Rico which we in the Congress have fostered. When they come to live in New York. they find that New Yorks Englishlanguage literacy test bars them from voting. despite their education and despite the articulate Spanishlanguage press in New York which keeps them informed about public affairs. New York at present allows a prospective voter to prove his literacy by showing an eighthgrade education at a school conducted in English. If he can do that. he does not have to take the Englishlanguage literacy test. Our amendment might be called the Americanflag school amendment. because It would allow the Puerto Rican American or any American educated in an Americanflag school conducted in a language other than English to show his educational attainment as proof of his ability to participate in the voting process. All we propose to do. therefore. is to bring the New Yorker of Puerto Rican origin into a status of equality with his fellow citizen who was educated in an Englishlanguage school.