Language Situation and Policies in the USA

Actually, the United States has never had a language policy which would be consciously planned and national in scope; there has been only language policies responding to immediate needs or political pressures. Moreover, these policies have been often contradictory and inadequate to cope with changing times. The issue of bilingual education to improve the education of the minorities may be noted as the largest problem on one hand; on the other hand, its opposition – the English only movement – may be viewed as the other end of the range of opinions. There should be added, the U.S. government spends money to support various forms of language education, but, because of the lack of policy, it is hard to say, whether these funds are well allocated or what are the goals they serve.
What are the most widespread attitudes in discussions about language policies? In Europe, they are the following:
• "the multiplicity of languages is an evil, and a source of conflict. It should be overcome by a universal language, or at least a global auxiliary language";
• "linguistic standardisation in modernity is inhuman and evil, like Newspeak in Orwell's 1984";...…