A ballot initiative to restrict bilingual education succeeded in 2002. Although in 1975, this state made English its official language (see below), it had until 2002 required immigrant children to be educated in foreign languages.

Official Language Law of Massachusetts (1975)

Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Article XX.
No person shall [have the right to vote, or] be eligible to office under the constitution of this commonwealth, who shall not be able to read the constitution in the English language, and write his name: — provided, however, that the provisions of this amendment shall not apply to any person prevented by a physical disability from complying with its requisitions, nor to any person who now has the right to vote, nor to any persons who shall be sixty years of age or upwards at the time this amendment shall take effect.

LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN MASSACHUSETTS

4,838,679	English
1,115,570	All languages other than English combined
370,011	Spanish or Spanish Creole
159,809	Portuguese or Portuguese Creole
84,484	French (incl. Patois, Cajun)
71,412	Chinese
59,811	Italian
43,519	French Creole
32,580	Russian
30,400	Vietnamese
28,819	Greek
27,631	Polish
21,549	Mon-Khmer, Cambodian
20,029	German
18,742	Arabic
14,030	African languages
12,135	Korean
9,985	Japanese
9,172	Hindi
8,091	Armenian
6,532	Hebrew
5,698	Tagalog
4,945	Gujarathi
4,673	Scandinavian languages
4,598	Persian
4,228	Urdu
3,609	Serbo-Croatian
3,463	Laotian
2,381	Yiddish
2,231	Thai
1,619	Hungarian
1,121	Miao, Hmong
898	Other Native North American languages
34	Navajo