Private tutors and private schools have always been available for the rich. Our public school system in America became one of the great successes of democracy by educating the sons of rich men and poor men in the same classrooms. Later, over a hundred years later, girls were gradually allowed to integrate classrooms without the world coming to an end.
Private donations built the first public school; taxpayer-funded schools would come later. In 1635, the Boston Latin School was founded to educate young men of all social classes. The school founded the Girls’Latin School in 1877, and Boston Latin admitted its first co-ed class in 1972. The school is still open (https://www.bls.org/apps/ pages/index.jsp).
Admitting girls to public schools was a giant step forward, but only White students were welcome at that time.
When the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Board of Education in 1954 that “separate but equal” was illegal and that public schools must integrate, private schools sprang up everywhere in the South.
Redlining, loan denial, and neighborhood restrictions had all kept African-Americans in underserved neighborhoods in general and underfunded schools in particular. The schools were separate but starkly unequal. Nevertheless, Southern communities delayed integration or found ways around it.
In Virginia, a program of massive resistance was chartered to preserve “racial integrity,” “racial separateness,” and “the precious heritage handed down to us by our forefathers.” In Prince Edward County, Virginia, legislators closed the entire school system from 1959 to 1964 rather than let their White children be “polluted” by the presence of Black children (https:// www.theatlantic.com).
As just one example, in 1959, Patricia Turner and 16 other Black children integrated the junior high school in Norfolk, Virginia. Like all the other brave children who integrated schools in the ’50s and ’60s, she endured unrelenting volleys of racist taunts. Her teacher put her assignments in a separate box and returned them wearing rubber gloves. At least the school was warm in the winter (https://www.theguardian. com/world/2021/nov/27/integrationpublic- schools-massive-resistance-virginia- 1950s).
Now that the benefits of gender- and racially-integrated public schools are widely recognized, why is Oklahoma using taxpayer money to hand out vouchers for private schools? Public money is meant to go to public schools!
Right wing Republicans say they don’t want children to learn anything that might make them “uncomfortable.” But the whole enterprise of learning at any age involves pushing one’s comfort zone. This seems an unlikely reason for the state’s war on public education.
And yes, it is a war, led by none other than the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, who favors vouchers, private schools, banning books, closing libraries, and using Prager U materials in classrooms.
(Prager is NOT a university but a right-wing media company, and its videos are full of propaganda and disinformation).
I think Oklahoma legislators don’t want students exposed to anything that makes core supporters or donors uncomfortable. Just consider the very wide range of learning that could make a member of Moms for Liberty recoil (Phyllis Rustin, “Moms for Liberty- Are they?” Durant Democrat, 1228-2023.)
To mollify the far-right minority, Oklahoma is on the cusp of banning truth in textbooks, banning all the books that offend anyone, and banning any discussions about race, gender, or injustice.
Indeed, several Oklahoma legislators want to defund public universities and colleges that have policies to promote diversity, equity, or inclusion.
Republicans have controlled Oklahoma’s legislature for over a decade now. They have starved public educa- tion year after year. Teachers have fled the state in record numbers.
Legislation is now moving through the Oklahoma legislature to increase teacher pay and offer maternity pay for teachers, but its future is by no means assured.
Five years after Oklahoma teachers joined a nationwide movement and walked out of their classrooms for better pay, “Oklahoma still ranks in the bottom half of all states when it comes to pay, and per-pupil spending is still among the lowest in the country” (npr. org/2023/04/26/teacherwalkout- oklahoma/republican/ anniversary).
Schools, especially rural schools, throughout Oklahoma need an infusion of cash just to keep up with physical maintenance.
Public schools are the hub of many rural communities. We could look at the example of Finland, which has no private schools. The rich support public schools and democracy wins. The students learn to respect each other just from being together.
Vouchers for private and religious schools is a wretched idea. Why should taxpayers support private schools? Private schools cannot be held accountable by taxpayers. Worse, they will tend to segregate our community by class, religion, physical or learning disabilities, gender, and race.
Oklahoma needs public schools, and public schools need the support of our legislature. Urgently. Let our public funds help support public schools. And only public schools.