Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-16
Gray Plan

Dl6ck marx III tUBLuih WtuCIA
will be difiicult TO erase.
1t is an attempt to stampede
the people Of the State through
emotion and hurried action
into adopting a plan which
expressly evades the Supreme
Court school IMMIGRATION rul-
ing. The plan is Manufactured
for graft In distributing State
funds to private schools. One
can imagine the types Of
schools that will spring UP to
feed from the State-grant
trough: Schools that will lower
the already poor Virginia ed
ucational standard and impose
even heavier burdens on the
taxpayer to support them as
well as public schools.
However. the Gray plan has
accomplished at least one good
thing. It has shown there are
still some thinking people in
Virginia who refuse to be
blindly herded. Opposition to
the Gray plan has been par
ticularly strong in some sec
tons Of Northern Virginia.
These counties viii provide an
ideal spot to begin indignation
once the Gray plan is declared
unconstitutional. Once the
rest Of the State sees that in
tegration will work and accepts
the fact that 1t Is inevitable.
opposition will rapidly break
down and the schools can be
united to fulfill the Supreme
Courts order.
Then the ugly marks left by
the Gray plan may be at least
lightened II not erased.
r. C. Murphey.
The real issue in the Vir-
ginia referendum Is not pres
ervation Of our public school
system, but whether we shall
preserve education and save
our children. Amid all the flu
ror and misleading propaganda
over the alleged threat to that
sacred COW, the public school
system. / think 1t should be
made clear that a vote for the
constitutional convention does
this:
It paves the way for a con-
stitutional change that win
permit the General Assembly
to offer parents a choice be-
tween: Cd Sending their chill
dren free Of charge to inte-
grated, government operated
public schools and Cd receiv-
ing from State and local APP
preparations in their school di-
vision a tuition grant for pri-
vate nonsectarian schooling
for each eligible child equiva-
lent to the per pupil expendi-
ture in the public schools. In
other words. a vote for the
constitutional convention will
be a vote to preserve and ex-
tend liberty by making it &C.
onomically possible for parents
and guardians to have a choice.
A vote against the constitu-
tional convention will be a
vote to compel children whose
parents cannot afford to send
them elsewhere to attend in
tegrated public schools with
academic standards so low that
three-fourths or more Of the
white children viii be educa-
tionally retarded at a time
when world conditions call for
a much greater supply of stu
dents who are capable of be-
ing trained as scientists and
engineers.
A vote against the conven-
ton will be q vote to compel
the exposure Of white children
to the lower health and moral
standards Of the Negro race.
It will be a vote to compel o
close association Of white and
Negro children during their
impressionable. formative years
at the risk Of increased racial
intermarriage and amalgama-
ton.
The increasing monopoly Of
government In the field of edu-
cation--at the elementary and
high school levels 1t is 30 per
cent or more on q Nation wide
basis-has come about because
only government with the
power to tax Is financially able
to pay for education. We are
rapidly moving toward the time
when all education will be gov
eminent education with the
State and local systems under
the centralized control Of the
Federal Government. A fact
worth bordering Is that this
country was founded by cham
pions of liberty who were all
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