Letting cabbies not learn English is another ‘progressive’ debacle

The New York Post reports:

When Mayor de Blasio quietly scrapped the requirement for yellow-cab drivers to pass an English test recently, he might have thought he was easing the path to a job for immigrants.

Yet he has no idea the harm he’s done them — and riders, too. Nor do the City Council members who pushed the bill ditching the requirement.

But then, it’s just the latest in the progressives’ thinking that lowering standards, not requiring Americans to speak English and failing to encourage assimilation helps immigrants.


Start with City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who sponsored the legislation. He claimed cabbies didn’t need to know English because in many neighborhoods both the driver and passenger speak the same non-English language.

Rodriguez was once a livery-car driver himself, so it’s perplexing that he doesn’t understand how taxis work.

Fact is, cabbies often pick up passengers in one neighborhood, drop them off in another and then seek riders there. They can’t wait and choose someone who speaks their language; they must take anyone who hails them. If the next fare speaks only English and the driver doesn’t, let’s be honest: It’s a problem.

It would be too bad if non-English speaking cab drivers didn't get paid by English speaking cab riders who want to stiff them after a cab ride.