Barone: (H)elping people to master the English language, to understand the workings of American government and the economy? They are things that are essential to success and upward mobility in the United States.

(I)n my view we're seeing a degree of assimilation and upward mobility that is probably higher than it was for the Italian-Americans of 100 years ago.

Remember that 100 years ago the process of assimilation did not always seem likely to be successful. A hundred years ago Americans were told that Irish, Italian, Jewish and other immigrants were people of a different race, they could never be assimilated into Anglo-Saxon American civilization.