Repeal the Blaine Amendment

Texas and 37 other states have constitutional provisions prohibiting the use of state funds at sectarian schools, schools with religious affiliations. Originally anti-Catholic measures, they are called Blaine Amendments after former U.S. House Speaker James G. Blaine who attempted to have the amendment added to the U.S. Constitution in 1875. He failed but the idea proved popular at the state level. Speaker Blaine was reacting to the wave of Irish and German Catholic immigrants demanding their own schools. Catholics objected to their children being required to participate in Protestant prayer services and use the King James Bible, common practice in public schools at the time. To Blaine, sectarian meant Catholic. It would not have occurred to him that the ban might someday affect Protestants. I wonder what he would think now as all religious expression is increasingly banned from public schools. The practical effect today is to reinforce the K-12 public school monopoly on state funding, and to complicate proposals for school choice. Parents who can't afford private school tuition are pretty much stuck in the public school system. School districts are under increasing pressure to provide alternatives like magnet and charter schools, and to allow students in underperforming schools to enroll in other public schools with better records. Some districts have responded with imaginative solutions that work well for some students but a private school option really should be part of the mix, including schools with religious affiliation. To get around Blaine, private school choice proposals in Texas don't include vouchers. Instead they provide business tax credits for donations to non profits who offer scholarships or tuition assistance for low income families who can demonstrate academic or financial need. There are at least three bills pending in the current legislature to authorize these tax credits. They differ primarily in size and scope. None of them would cost the state money because the credits are lower than the per pupil costs in public schools. Tax credits have proven effective in other states. They are growing more popular and have generally withstood Blaine based legal challenges. They are a response to increasing awareness that some schools are failing our children. Internal reform efforts have been going nowhere for many years in some districts. To force a child to remain in a school where she cannot get an adequate education is unconscionable. She must be given alternatives. And what's wrong with vouchers anyway? A Texas veteran is free to use his GI Bill benefits at the accredited school of his choice and that would include SMU, TCU, or for that matter Brigham Young. Just how does K-12 differ? Blaine's roots are in religious discrimination. It's effect still is, only now the discrimination is against any religion, usually Christian religion. Catholics defied Blaine and built their own schools without state assistance, paying their children's tuition and public school taxes as well. Others who could afford it followed suit. The resulting schools are among the best in the nation by any measure, and most of them are open to families who are not particularly affluent. If they have a religious affiliation they typically welcome children from other faiths. President Obama's children attend a private Quaker school, as did Chelsea Clinton. My granddaughter's high school class at St. Agnes in Houston included wealthy Muslim girls from the Middle East, and not so wealthy girls who's families couldn't begin to afford the tuition. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. It is in everyone's interest to see to it that our children get the best education available, all of our children. Parents should have a big say in that. The Blaine amendment is in the way. Repeal it.