Voucher ruling could end century of religious bias

By K. Penney Sanders

 

In the education establishment, the summer talk is about the agenda for the next legislative session. Reports and "white papers" identify the issues to be studied when the Kentucky General Assembly convenes in January.

 

There are the usual calls for more school funding. A recent study recommended that the state spend an additional $750 million a year for education. A second study suggested that the number is closer to an additional $1 billion a year. Irrespective of the number selected, it is a lot of money.

 

Nowhere in this discussion of funding and programs is anyone talking about charter schools or other options. Kentucky's policy gurus still assert that school-based councils are all the choice anyone needs. This may change in the near future.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an important religious liberty case that could overturn more than a century of discrimination. In an appeal coming from Washington state, the court may finally render a decision based on the Blaine amendment to Washington's constitution.

 

Blaine amendments are attributed to U.S. Rep. James Blaine of Maine who, in 1875, proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have severely restricted the use of federal funds in any school under the control of a religious organization. Because Blaine was the speaker of the House, his amendment passed there, but the Senate, by a narrow margin, kept the amendment from passing. A historical footnote: For a brief period, Blaine was a schoolteacher in Kentucky.

Because Blaine was so powerful, many states, including Kentucky, added the amendment to their constitutions. And Blaine's restrictive language was a condition of statehood for 17 others. The amendments were inserted into state constitutions under the guise of maintaining a separation of church and state. In practice, the amendments prohibit the funding of any sectarian (faith-based or non-public) schools.

 

Sadly, the history of these amendments is rooted in a period of ethnic and religious bigotry that has been shoved to the forgotten pages of history. One of the darkest passages in Kentucky history is the infamous "Bloody Monday" riot. In 1855, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic disturbance broke out in Louisville at the doors of the Cathedral of the Assumption. More than 20 people were killed. At the same time, all the Roman Catholic teachers in the Louisville public schools were fired.

 

Through the years there have been numerous "end runs" around the Blaine language. The most recent one in Kentucky is the distribution of scholarship money to students for use at the schools of their choice. By giving the money directly to the student instead of the institution, there is no support of a "sectarian" institution.

 

Still the Blaine Amendment is often cited by well-meaning citizens as the reason there can be no public funding of non-public schools. While other states have amended their constitutions to correct such bigotry, Kentucky has yet to confront it.

 

Reading the Blaine language in today's environment, one can hardly believe such hatred existed, much less continues to be enshrined in state constitutions. Yet, one need only remember the racial discrimination that existed into the 20th century to understand how hatred takes root and continues to live as long as we fail to confront and eradicate it.

 

The Supreme Court's Mitchell decision in 2000 said that providing instructional materials to students in non-public schools did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. In 2002, the court upheld Ohio's voucher (school choice) law.

In the Mitchell decision, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Blaine amendment, "born of bigotry, should be buried now."

 

Knowing that the Supreme Court will hear the Washington state case and rule, perhaps for the fourth time, that there is no violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, it is time for all in the education community to begin a serious discussion of choices and options for children and their parents. Let us, as Kentuckians, no longer hide behind language "born of bigotry." Let us move forward to consider the needs of all Kentucky children, irrespective of where they attend school.