Yes. I think we should get it right and get it done.
As I read the bill, there is a good foundation for our communities to be able to build what is necessary. In and of itself, the legislation will not answer the questions that we have or the concerns that we have. What we need is the resources and the capacity in our communities to be able to develop fluency.
I think the first priority, if you talk to those who teach language, is not literature. It's not more books or more dictionaries, but it's fluency and the ability to speak the language, supported by literacy, which is absolutely critical. I would say, fluency through immersion. Where would you put your resources? Where would you put your money? Immersion, with children....
We've seen the successes in other parts of the world. In Hawaii, where the language was virtually dead some 20 or 30 years ago, they adopted the “language nests” approach of the Maori in New Zealand. Now, they teach courses at the university level in Hawaiian, even at the Ph.D. level. That's where they've gone in a relatively short period of time: from a handful of speakers to where they have thousands of children who are fluent in Hawaiian.