Millions Will Get Census Form In Spanish

SUITLAND, Md. (WUSA) -- In an effort to increase response rates and save money, the Census Bureau will automatically mail or deliver 13.5 million questionnaires in English and Spanish in areas with a large concentration of Spanish speakers.

On April 1, 2010 all households in areas where at least one fifth of the population speaks Spanish will get the bilingual Census forms.

The bilingual forms will cost an extra $26 million, but the effort will actually save money according to Census Bureau experts.

"This could increase the overall response rate by 2 percent," says Sharon Boyer with the Census Bureau. "Each percentage point means an estimated savings of between 80 to 90 million dollars."

That's because by law, those households that don't return a Census form will need to be visited by a Census enumerator, which is a more costly undertaking.

Most Latino leaders are very pleased with the decision. Gustavo Torres, who heads Casa De Maryland, a Latino advocacy group, believes its a win-win situation. An accurate Census count means "Many communities will get additional federal funding based on their actual population and for Latinos, being counted can add up to more power."

But organizations like U.S. English disagree.

"The Census Bureau sees this just as a customer service issue, and that's a bad idea," says Tim Schultz. "The bigger picture is that bilingual forms discourage immigrants from learning English."

A large number of immigrants who don't speak English "not only hurts the communities where those people live but also the immigrants themselves who are likely to earn less because of their lack of English language skills," argues Schultz.

The Census forms are also available in many languages including Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Russian, but households must request those forms in order to get them.