1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

the public schools are gone. 12 * He noted other possible problems.
Public school teachers must be certified by the State; private school
teachers need not. Public schools offer special services to children with
handicaps or special talents and abilities; private schools with a smaller
geographic spread cannot do so. 128 Further, the variety of programs
offered in private schools must of necessity be more restrictive.
One of the less obvious dangers of a private school system. Dr. Green
explained, was the opportunity for individuals and small groups to impose
their personal ideas and prejudices upon the school. The protection
now offered by State supervision against such action is far from
complete, but even this would be lost. He said: 129
It is not pleasant to contemplate the manner in which various
groups will try to get these private schools to indoctrinate children
with their own particular brands of religious, political, social, and
economic beliefs. In contrast to the present situation, parents will
have no recourse if school policies are objectionable or harmful.
Schools will be crowded, hard to find, harder to get into, and the
good ones will be very expensive. In most cases parents will have
to take what they can get, and like it.
People from all sections of the South are showing increasing concern
about the future of public education. When the public high schools in
Little Rock, Ark., were closed, a group of citizens who preferred desegregated
schools to none at all organized a committee to support
public schools. 130 A Little Rock newspaper which had formerly supported
Governor Faubus' policies endorsed the committee. 131 When
public schools were threatened in New Orleans, La., similar groups
were formed, 132 and in Georgia citizens' groups played a vital role in
passing laws that allow school districts to decide for themselves whether
or not to maintain public education. 133 It is noteworthy that groups
such as these are not concerned with the merits of the School Segregation
Cases; their only concern is the survival of public education.
Tuition grants threaten the quality of public education, even its existence.
Without such laws, private schools, insofar as they are a substitute
for public schools, could not long exist. In Virginia the new private
schools for whites are almost wholly supported by tuition grants, 134 and in
Little Rock without such aid they soon disappeared. 135 Tuition grant
laws in operation have produced such situations as private schools for one
race and public schools for both (as in Gharlottesville, Norfolk, and
Warren County), or private schools for one race, none for the other (as
in Prince Edward County).
Public schools lose the revenue siphoned off to private schools. Mr.
Gasque of Warren County, Va., reported that the loss of State funds to
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