School vouchers are discriminatory

The NAACP opposes vouchers and supports public education facilities.

During the Utah legislative session, the NAACP Salt Lake Branch lobbied against HB115, Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarships. After the bill passed we lobbied Gov. Olene Walker to veto HB115. After careful consideration and consultation with Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Gov. Walker did the right thing and vetoed it. The NAACP now urges the Utah Legislature not to override this veto.

This bill does not require that scholarships be made available to "all" students who attend a private school, but addresses only the Special Needs Scholarships. If it goes into law in any form or fashion, it will violate the 14th Amendment and would be in violation of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. If this bill is allowed to go into law, it will send a clear message that Brown v. Board of Education was wrong and will show approval for discrimination. In order for this bill to be equal for everyone, scholarships must be made available to all students and not a selected segment of the community. The identical scholarship program ($100,000 each year for each group) must be established for African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Pacific Islander and other groups attending private schools.

NAACP attorneys argued the Brown v. Board of Education case for African American minors who were denied admission to schools attended by white children. Such laws permitting segregation according to race came from the states of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled, in a unanimous decision, that the "separate but equal" clause was unconstitutional because it violated the children's 14th Amendment rights by "separating them solely on the classification of the color of their skin." With HB115, the students would be separated on the classification of their disability.

Speaking for the court on May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren said, "In the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place."

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated are deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment by reason of segregation.

The NAACP opposes vouchers and supports Public Education facilities.

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Jeanetta Williams is the president of the Salt Lake Branch of the NAACP.