wfn.org | Vouchers Not Good for Poor

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3244 notes).

Note 3244 by UMNS on Oct. 21, 1996 at 16:26 Eastern (3071 characters).

SEARCH: education, schools, vouchers, poor, African American,
minorities, civil rights
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                   530(10-22-31-71B){3244}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           Oct. 21, 1996

School choice voucher plan not good
for poor children, say African Americans

                 by United Methodist News Service

     Several African Americans, including six United Methodist
clergy, have declared opposition to school choice voucher plans.
     In a statement released Oct. 20, a group of 17 African
Americans say politicians' proposals that do not provide
additional funding for public schools actually would take money
from public school budgets.
     Although labeled a civil rights movement or program by some
voucher-plan supporters, these African Americans charge, "Those
words were a device to make it seem a benefit to African Americans
and other minorities."
     Rather, the group contends, voucher plans would take money
from underfunded schools that serve most poor black and white
children and transfer that money to private and parochial schools.
     The group is comprised of political leaders, educators, civil
rights leaders, clergy, a psychiatrist and an attorney.
     "The history of private school choice is one of white flight
from public schools attended by large numbers of black children,
which therefore results in neglect of those public schools," the
statement declares.
     In addition, the group maintains, "African-American parents
and their churches are not eager for the government to finance
religious schools that convert children to denominations different
from those of the parents."
     The group cited studies indicating that because private
schools are generally located in wealthy neighborhoods funding
would flow from poor counties to richer counties. 
     "Private schools are not subject to constitutional
protections" of students that are present in the public schools,
the statement says. 
     School choice within public school systems, especially the
use of magnet schools, has permitted children "to choose from
academic courses and from vocational choices that prepare them for
jobs in commerce and industry," the statement says. "Those choices
do not exist in parochial or other private schools."
     United Methodist clergy among the signers of the statement
include Retired Bishop James Thomas of Atlanta; Emanuel Cleaver,
mayor of Kansas City, Mo.; Nelson Thompson, president of the
Kansas City Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference; and three ministers serving in California: Lewis
Chase, James Lawson and Philip Lawson.
     Others who signed include professors William Anderson, Gwen
Thomas and Dorothy Cotton; civil rights leaders James Farmer and
C.T. Vivian; and Hannah Atkins, former Oklahoma secretary of
state.
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