Were ‘school choice’ vouchers used to impede school desegregation in the 1950s?
After the Supreme Court in 1954 ordered the desegregation of public schools, some Southern states issued tuition vouchers to parents who wanted to send their children to whites-only private schools. That early form of “school choice,” legal scholar James Forman Jr. wrote, effectively delayed implementation of the Court's decision “by at least a decade.”
The idea of school choice has also served progressive ends, Forman noted, including opening opportunities for poor Black students. Advocates say current voucher programs that let students choose charter schools instead of their local public school offer important opportunities for disadvantaged students. Advocates and critics disagree over whether charter school programs advance or impede integration—and even whether or not integration is a worthwhile goal.
