Whom would you prefer to share the road with — trained drivers who have passed a proficiency test, or unlicensed drivers who can’t take the test because they can’t speak English, but drive anyway?

Who makes a better citizen — a person who can drive himself to and from work, support himself, get around on his own and be self-sufficient, or one who is dependent on others (perhaps including the taxpayers) because of lack of transportation?

Those are the practical considerations that make it a bad idea to give driver tests only in English. But an organization called ProEnglish sought to stop Alabama from testing in multiple languages.

Exercising good sense but by a narrow margin, the Alabama Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject ProEnglish’s challenge, which was based on a constitutional amendment that declared English the state’s official language.

ProEnglish says the Legislature could pre-empt the court by voting to use only English for the exams. We hope not.

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