In March 2024, Alabama’s governor signed a bill authorizing state-funded school vouchers for students attending private schools (see story here).
The funding mechanism is complicated, and intentionally so. Instead of directly paying tuition at private schools, or giving tuition vouchers to parents, it funnels a tax credit through an education savings account (ESA).
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the aim of this is to mask the fact that public school dollars are being re-routed to private schools. Defenders will argue it doesn’t come out of public school funding. The whole point of this tortuous funding mechanism is to deny it takes money away from public schools. It’s a phony-baloney argument, and should be seen as the smokescreen it is.
The tax credit reduces state revenue, which in turn reduces funds available for public education, which in Alabama is already severely underfunded. That’s no accident; this Deep South state has never been willing to spend on educating black students.
Now let’s talk about Monroe Academy, and all-white private school (read about it here). Founded in 1969 to evade Supreme Court-mandated school integration, it’s the type of school referred to as a “segregation academy.” In its 55-year history, it has never admitted a black student.
Private schools can racially segregate; the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision only applies to public schools. After Brown, white parents could still send their kids to all-white private schools, and in the South many did, and states pursued various schemes to fund those schools. All these previous attempts to evade Brown and re-segregate southern schools fooled no one.
This is just another such attempt. Under Alabama’s new “school choice” law, at least some students’ tuition at “segregation academies” like Monroe Academy will be funded by taxpayers, and that turns them into publicly-funded schools. And the instant Monroe Academy becomes publicly-funded, its racial segregation in admissions becomes illegal.
I don’t know what courts will do with this, but I have my opinion of what they should do: This transparent attempt to re-segregate publicly-funded education in Alabama violates of Brown v. Board of Education, and either this law should be struck down, or a court should order Monroe Academy to admit black students as a condition of accepting tuition payments funded by ESA tax credits.
Photo below: Monroe County High School class of 2019
Photo below: A typical Monroe Academy class
