February 3, 2006
The Capital Times, Madison, WI
EDITORIAL
As Wisconsinites mourn the passing of Coretta Scott King, they would do well to recall the message she delivered during one of her last visits to the state.
Delivering the keynote address at that year's Wisconsin Education Association convention in Milwaukee, she condemned proposals to divert taxpayer dollars from public education to private schools.
Describing strong public schools as an essential underpinning of a functional and free America, King said, "Anything that undermines them does a shameful disservice to children."
While the wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said she saw value in religious education, she added, "I see no good reason private schools should be subsidized by taxpayers."
Speaking specifically about so-called "voucher programs," which require taxpayers to fund the education of students who do not attend public schools, King warned that those who would use public money to fund religious or for-profit private schools are robbing the great mass of American children of an opportunity to secure the education they need.
Coretta King understood that supporting public education is essential to advancing the civil rights struggle, to which she and her husband dedicated their lives. Today, conservative special interest groups are funding a radio advertising campaign that seeks to associate defenders of public education with segregationists such as former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. The campaign is a grotesque distortion of history and the truth and we hope that, out of respect for Coretta King's memory, it will be discontinued.
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