Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court chipped away at the "separation between church and state" that is supposed to exist per the Constitution's First Amendment by ruling in Carson vs. Makin that states can further fund private and religious schools with public tax dollars.
The ruling comes as little surprise when considering that, like abortion, social conservatives have spent the past four decades pushing "vouchers" and similar publicly funded programs for private institutions. Right on cue, conservatives rejoiced, while progressives raised concerns about the impact that today's ruling will have on publically funded education.
So, you can count Ol' Hobbs among the progressives blasting this decision! Why? Well, let's take a quick stroll down history lane, to the years 1954 through 1965.
Back in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its Brown vs. Board of Education decision, one that (on paper) reversed Jim Crow segregation as promulgated in the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. I use "on paper" in the preceding sentence because in actuality, Jim Crow states did not hardly desegregate "with all deliberate speed" as mandated by Brown.
Protesters, circa 1954, expressing their views on school desegregation…
In fact, here in Florida, the state legislature, fearing integration, had begun earmarking funds to build brand new Black high schools across the state as far back as 1949! This is why many of those facilities, like FAMU High School in Tallahassee, Havana Northside and Carter-Parramore High Schools near Tallahassee, Stanton High School in Jacksonville, and Lincoln High School in Gainesville, are eerily similar in regards to the building structures and layouts; the segregationists figured that if Blacks had new buildings, that they wouldn't dare enter their hallowed all-white public schools like Tallahassee's Leon High School and Florida High, nearby Quincy High School, or Gainesville High School.
As the Civil Rights Movement turned into a literal war of attrition between segregationists and Black civil rights groups like the NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC, by 1964, it was rather clear that then President Lyndon B. Johnson was committed to federal legislation that would add more enforcement teeth to the Brown desegregation mandate by withholding federal earmarks. With states in danger of losing federal funds by remaining separate and unequal, white families who did not wish for their children to attend school with Blacks began establishing private and parochial schools all across the South. Some of those schools, derisively referred to as "segregation academies" by historians, even received state tax subsidies at their inception!
In my hometown of Tallahassee, two original segregation academies, the Maclay School and North Florida Christian School, were both founded in the late 1960's as local public schools across the state began desegregating.
In 1969, all-Black Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida squared off against all-white Robinson High School of Tampa in a televised quiz bowl match…
In 1987, 18 years after the Gibbs High vs. Robinson High match, an all-Black team from FAMU High School squared off against an all-white Leon High School squad in a televised quiz bowl match. Game high scorer was a sophomore then known as “Chuckie” Hobbs…
In 1985, two decades after segregation academies were first chartered, the very first junior varsity football game that I played in for the FAMU High Baby Rattlers was against the North Florida Christian School Eagles. Our team was all Black, their team was all white. Our stands were filled with Black parents and supporters, and their stands were filled with white parents and supporters. We won that first game by four touchdowns, and beat them in the rematch later that season by six touchdowns. The varsity Baby Rattlers also crushed the varsity Eagles despite the presence of North Florida’s star quarterback Casey Weldon, who went on to become a Heisman Trophy runner-up while leading the Florida State football team in 1991.
FAMU High stars Craig Allen (89) and Tony Cartwright (44) preparing to bite North Florida quarterback Casey Weldon in ‘85.
While the Maclay School did not field a football team back then, we wore them out in all other sports save one, which was baseball (another story for another time 😆).
Today, both North Florida Christian and Maclay have Black students, albeit still in the minority to their white student population. In the past two decades, North Florida has become a football powerhouse primarily because it recruits Black athletes, many of whom attend the school on some form of voucher/scholarship that's backed by state funds.
Thus, my major concern about today's ruling is that Republican led legislatures and governors, like Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron Desantis in Florida, are just itching to find ways to divert state dollars from public school systems that are often led by school boards that are far more progressive in their politics. Indeed, when you look back over the past 20 years at "vouchers," "school choice," "Critical Race Theory," and "Don't Say Gay," all of these were/are measures for conservatives to control how local schools are run!
Now, thanks to a conservative SCOTUS, Republican dominant states have the opening they need to allocate public dollars away from public schools—or eliminate public schools altogether. A reality that is rather obtuse when considering that public taxes are derived from people of all races, religions, sexual identities and preferences—people who may no longer have much say as to which private or parochial (and potentially discriminatory) schools receive their funds.
Another reason that the SCOTUS should be expanded to bring balance to this right-wing push to fascism.