Do vouchers equal segregation?

Private school vouchers are often touted as a way to level the educational playing field for less-affluent families, particularly minorities living in poverty.

But in Utah, one of the chief critics of the nation's broadest voucher program is the NAACP, which fears vouchers are a backdoor to creating segregated schools.

"It is a large fear that that's exactly what's going to happen," said Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "After Brown v. Board of Education there were a large number of schools that closed down because they said, we will close our schools before we integrate. Now all the sudden these folks want to come in and do vouchers."

Utah lawmakers this year approved the country's broadest private school voucher program, which gives parents $500 to $3,000 per child for private school tuition. In November, voters will decide whether they want to repeal the program before it takes effect.

The fear about voucher programs leading to segregated schools exists because it's happened before. The first state-sponsored voucher programs arose in Southern states as a way to help white families avoid sending their children to integrated schools. The schools were dubbed "segregation academies" and popped up throughout the South.

Eventually, courts ruled those scholarship programs illegal, although many white students continued to avoid enrolling in public schools and those who did often moved to predominantly white districts. Those familiar with the history of segregated schools say current voucher debates bring up painful memories for many, said Marcia Synnott, a University of South Carolina history professor who is an expert on the history of education in the South.

An effort to start a voucher program similar to Utah's in South Carolina has also come under criticism, she said.

"Among African-Americans they were very, very conscience about it. It's like deja vu — we've seen this before," Synnott said.

What's changed since the days of segregation academies in the voucher debate is the way voucher proponents promote the program, she said.

"They're not hitting on that 'We don't want your child to go to school with blacks or poor people.' They're saying, 'You've got to be a good parent,"' she said. "Back in the '60s there were segregation academies founded in South Carolina. Some didn't admit blacks until the '70s or '80s. In those early years, race was on everyone's minds. I don't think it is as overtly on everyone's minds now, but it's there. But other appeals are being made. It has that element of helping the middle classes."