EWP Gray Commission Image Page 009

Title

Description

Page 9 of the Gray Commission Report outlines the proposed process for student assignments, emphasizing that decisions should be based on factors such as school facilities, student welfare, and transportation availability, while ensuring that no child is forced to attend an integrated school. It establishes a formal appeal process for parents who object to school assignments, allowing for hearings at the local level and further appeals to higher courts. Additionally, the report recommends clarifying school transportation policies, reinforcing local control over teacher assignments, and permitting localities to raise and allocate funds for education, including transportation costs, while maintaining the option for funding alternatives in areas without public schools.

Tag

Welfare and best interests of all other pupils; availability of facilities; aptitude of the child; Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia; powers and duties of school boards relative to transportation; educational levy; state aid

Place

Virginia

Identifier

1032698

Is Version Of

1032698_GreyCommission008.jpg

Is Part Of

Civill Rights, Gray Commission

Gray Commission

Date Created

2024-01-07

Format

PDF

Publisher

Digitized by Edwin Washington Project

Rights

Loudoun County Public Schools

Language

English

Replaces

/Volumes/T7 Shield/EWP/Elements/EWP_Files/source/Ingest Two/Arciero/Tonys_Files/History project/The Book/Additional information/integrationfolder/GreyCommission008.jpg

extracted text

County; Richard Henry Lee, who moved the resolution in Congress, was
a magistrate of Westmoreland; Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of
Independence, was a magistrate of Albemarle; and Washington, on Whpse
broad shoulders the Revolution rested, was a magistrate of both King
George and Fairfax. The Commission is certain that the spirit that
actuated our fathers during times of trial still lives in this Commonv_vealth,
and that our best citizens will not fail to meet the challenge of their day.

SUMMARY OF LEGISLATION PROPOSED

The Commission has been confronted with the problem of continuing
a public school system and at the same time making provision for localities
wherein public schools are abandoned, and providing educational op-
portunities for children whose parents will not send them to integrated
schools.

To meet the problem thus created by the Supreme Court, the Com-
mission proposes a plan of assignment which will permit local school boards
to assign their pupils in such manner as will best serve the welfare of their
communities and protect and foster the public schools under their jurisdie-
tion. The Commission further proposes legislation to provide that no child
be required to attend a school wherein both white and colored children are
taught and that the parents of those children who object to integrated
schools, or who live in communities wherein no public schools are operated,
be given tuition grants for educational purposes.

There has heretofore been pending before The Supreme Court of
Appeals of Virginia the case of Almond v. Day, in which the court had
before it for consideration the question of whether the Legislature could
validly appropriate funds for the education of war orphans at public and
private schools. On November 7, 1955, the Court rendered its decision
and held, among other things, that § 141 of the Constitution of Virginia
prohibited the appropriation of public funds for payments of tuition,
institutional fees and other expenses of students who may desire to attend
private schools.

If our children are to be educated and if enforced integration is to
be avoided, it is now clear that § 141 must be amended. Moreover, unless
this is done, the State’s entire program, insofar as attendance at private
schools is concerned, involving the industrial rehabilitation program for
the physically and mentally handicapped, grants for the education of
deserving war orphans, grants in aid of Negro graduate students, and
scholarships for teaching and nursing, to remedy shortages in these fields,
is in jeopardy.

Accordingly, it is recommended that a special session of the General
Assembly be called forthwith for the purpose of initiating a limited con-
stitutional convention so that § 141 may be amended in ample time to
make tuition grants and other educational payments available in the cur-
rent school year and the school year beginning in the fall of 1956. A
suggested bill for consideration of the General Assembly is attached hereto
as Appendix III.

Contingent upon the favorable action of the people relative to the
amendment of the Constitution herein proposed, your Commission recom-
mends the enactment of legislation in substance as follows:

1. That school boards be authorized to assign pupils to particular
schools and to provide for appeals in certain instances.

Such legislation would be designed to give localities broad discretion
in the assignment of pupils in the public schools.

8

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