This article tackles the questions around the efficacy of the English language in educational contexts.The author argues that the answer to these questions has nothing to do with whether English is a more viable language of instruction or whether it promises non-English–speaking students full participation both in school and the society at large. This position, in the author’s view, would point to an assumption that English is, in fact, a superior language and that we live in a classless, race-blind society. He proposes, instead, that the attempt to institute proper and effective methods of educating non-English–speaking students rests on a full understanding of the ideological elements that generate and sustain linguistic, cultural, and racial discrimination, which represent vestiges of a colonial legacy in our democracy