I believed that this decision would mean for millions of poor children what the Brown v. Board of Education decision meant for Black children nearly 50 years ago.
I had received word that the U.S. Supreme Court would release its ruling at 9 A.M. the next day, June 27, 2002, on whether publicly funded school voucher programs, particularly those that include religious schools, are constitutional. I couldn’t have agreed more with Secretary Rod Paige’s statement that “the outcome of this case may well determine the educational destiny of millions of American children.” I believed that this decision would mean for millions of poor children what the Brown v. Board of Education decision meant for Black children nearly 50 years ago. I could imagine what Thurgood Marshall and most of Black America were feeling on May 16, 1954, as they awaited the ruling that would be handed down the next day.
The importance of the Court’s decision was brought home to me all the more as I spoke regularly with parents and grandparents who applied for but did not receive the tuition assistance we offer through the Children’s Tuition Fund. I heard the pain in their voices. I could imagine the desperate expressions on their faces. These parents simply love their children and want for them what any loving parent wants. They know that a quality education will open doors for their children that for the most part have been closed to them. These parents have considered, and some have even tasted, the education that God’s people provide, and they are convinced that there is none better. Yet, in many ways, it is a cruel tease that the tuition and other Christian school costs represent an insurmountable barrier rendering an education of hope out of reach.
The sentiment of African Americans concerning the 1954 ruling has been summarized as follows: “It is doubtful if the Supreme Court has ever in all its history made a decision of greater social and ideological significance than this one. This event was the turning point in the desegregation of public schools, and the beginning to an equality among all races.” I am convinced that the decision handed down on June 27, 2002, represents another turning point and a new beginning in education for this nation’s poor. This issue of the meantime is dedicated to that ruling. In the words of ACSI’s president Dr. Ken Smitherman (retired 2009), the decision represents “a new ray of sunshine and hope.” That hope is also reflected in the words of a parent: “The voucher program has made all the difference in the world for my children.” And thus we both celebrate the Court’s decision and make our preparations in light of it.
Indeed, a great victory has been wrought, yet major battles lie ahead. In the meantime, may our heavenly Father grant us the grace we need to meet the new opportunities and challenges born of this historic ruling.
The Meantime Volume 2 Number 1