ALEC Educ Legislation - Resurgence of Separate but Equal?????

I have to be totally honest – I don’t fanatically follow the so-called "educational model” legislation put out by ALEC.  But I am aware of what it does
– ALEC educational legislation steals taxpayer money from the public schools to fund private for-profit educational companies and institutions.

Bam! – that’s my interpretation.

On to the story:

This morning I heard a news release in Minnesota about the appointment of a new Minnesota Supreme Court Judge.  The news release included something to this effect (snips from other sources about her):

As a child, Wright said, she was inspired by her mother's "sheer determination" to force a Norfolk school superintendent to desegregate the city's schools long after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" decision that state laws establishing separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. That decision, she said, was critical to her understanding of the law.

Judge Wright's lessons on law came early in her life when Norfolk public schools were ordered to integrate. Instead of integrating, Norfolk closed its schools in massive resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. Judge Wright explained the court order for integration as the single most important document in her life as it secured her and those like her a better life through education.

Well – a huge red flag popped out of my head when I heard this (figuratively speaking).

Reason being is that I am of the opinion that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a racist (and misogynist) organization – but I haven’t been able to connect-the-dots completely, yet – but that will happen (Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.  And the Right wing web is very tangled.)

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.   

George Santayana

So I did a little digging and some of the stuff I found about the fight to keep blacks out of the school systems in Virginia is eerily similar to what we are seeing now as ALEC educational legislation.  The Norfolk VA case Griffin v School Board -  and you can find a very short history of it  >>>>HERE<<<

 
Snips from that page:

The attempt to end public education in Prince Edward County

Faced with an order to desegregate, the County Board of Supervisors in 1959 refused to appropriate funds for the operation of public schools although a private foundation operated schools for white children only, who in 1960 became eligible for county and state tuition grants.  Public schools continued to operate elsewhere in Virginia.

In 1956 Section 141 of the Virginia Constitution was amended to authorize the General Assembly and local governing bodies to appropriate funds to assist students to go to public or to nonsectarian private schools,

The General Assembly met in special session and enacted legislation to close any public schools where white and colored children were enrolled together, to cut off state funds to such schools, to pay tuition grants to children in nonsectarian private schools, and to extend state retirement benefits to teachers in newly created private schools.

In April 1959 the General Assembly abandoned "massive resistance" to desegregation and turned instead to what was [377 U.S. 218, 222]   called a "freedom of choice" program. The Assembly repealed the rest of the 1956 legislation, as well as a tuition grant law of January 1959, and enacted a new tuition grant program.

A private group, the Prince Edward School Foundation, was formed to operate private schools for white children in Prince Edward County and, having built its own school plant, has been in operation ever since the closing of the public schools.

An offer to set up private schools for colored children in the county was rejected, the Negroes of Prince Edward preferring to continue the legal battle for desegregated public schools, and colored children were without formal education from 1959 to 1963,

the major source of financial support for the Foundation was in the indirect form of these state and county tuition grants, paid to children attending Foundation schools

The Court of Appeals reversed, Judge Bell dissenting, holding that the District Court should have abstained to await state court determination of the validity of the tuition grants and the tax credits, as well as the validity of the closing of the public schools.

Today 2012

Turning back the clock

Going backwards - 60 years

Regressive behaviors - pushed by a regressive party

But in today's world they can't do it as blatantly as in the 1950's and 1960's

Gotta be sneaky, cagey about it, now.

Closing of public schools

Tuition grants

Tuition tax credits

Taxpayer money used to fund a private institution – that originally was “for white children only, who in 1960 became eligible for county and state tuition grants.”

The General Assembly met in special session and enacted legislation to close any public schools where white and colored children were enrolled together

I have always believed that the tuition grant/ tax credit programs that ALEC (and the right-wing extremists) proposes in their legislation are discriminatory in nature – because they are written for people who have the money to pay the “balance” of the tuition needed to transfer to a different school, people who can afford to go to another school.  Not the case for inner city, economically disadvantage families – regardless of color.  There are some good reports on this at the Center for Educational Policy.

Closing of public schools

Tuition grants

Tuition tax credits

Taxpayer money used to fund private educational institutions – that for the most part are not available to ALL.

The resurgence of “Separate but equal”????????

The resurgence of racist educational policies?????????

I’m certain by remaining adamant through the long-struggle, Prince Edward blacks saved public education in this nation.-  The Reverend L. Francis Griffin

Who will save it now??????