Let’s honor President Jimmy Carter by supporting public education and constitutional government

(Stock photo by Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)

As we absorb the many tributes written upon the death of former President Jimmy Carter, younger Americans born after his presidency are learning that he was a man of many firsts. Those achievements include the longest-lived president at 100, the longest post-presidency, the first president to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy and the first president to be born in a hospital.

But perhaps the most noteworthy of his many types of public service was being the first president to serve on a local school board. In 1955, he filled a vacancy on the Sumter County Board of Education and served as president of his community’s public school governing body. 

But the story of his support for public education doesn’t end in Georgia. As president, and unlike many of his 20th Century predecessors, he sent his daughter to public school, the Thaddeus Stevens School in Washington. In doing so, Amy Carter became the first presidential child to attend a public school since Theodore Roosevelt’s son Quentin attended the Force Elementary School on Massachusetts Avenue in the nation’s capital.

Based on his track record as a former school board president and public school parent, it was fitting that President Carter, a longtime advocate of public education, championed the passage of legislation that created the United States Department of Education in 1979. Among recent chief executives, the sum of these achievements clearly demonstrates that without question, Carter deserves the title of education president.

The period of Carter’s presidency was particularly impactful for me because at that time I was a young school administrator who had just been appointed as director of federal programs for a public school district. My responsibilities included the administration of all federally funded programs in the district, including Title I, the largest federal program that assists public school students. 

After Carter’s defeat in 1980 by Ronald Reagan, there was an initiative from the new administration to change categorical education programs like Title I into block grant forms of assistance, where federal funds would be sent to districts with fewer restrictions. But my fellow federal program directors opposed this push for so-called deregulation, as it invited mischief into how funds could be diverted away from students needing a higher level of instructional support to other priorities a district might identify.

This attempt by the Reagan Administration to change the original purpose of the landmark Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 by claiming that flexibility would provide needed deregulation, taught me to be highly skeptical of those who railed about the need for cutting “government red tape.”

Now, more than 40 years later, that rhetoric hasn’t changed at all. 

Worse yet, President Donald Trump has spoken repeatedly about abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, a key part of the legacy of the 39th President, James Earl Carter Jr. Such talk only solidifies the visionary legacy of a former Georgia school board member as he identified nearly a half-century ago the needs of America’s children and the supports necessary for success during the school years.

The strong identification of President Carter with the foundational importance of public education as the glue that holds communities together stands in marked contrast with today, where more than 30 states offer some type of support for non-public schools with scarce public funds. In these states, that support ranges from educational vouchers that provide tuition assistance for private and religious school education to even support for home schooling expenses.

States that aggressively promote the flow of public funds to support private and religious schools to the detriment of public education are not only stretching or weakening long-established constitutional norms but are also destroying the public school as the adhesive which holds American communities together.

With the undermining of public education, where the common school meant that the schoolhouse door was open to all, are we seeing e pluribus unum become ex uno plures? 

As we remember President James Earl Carter Jr., a local school board president years before he became president for us all, we should also be aware of the Ohio legislature’s public school demolition crew led by state Sen. Andrew Brenner and Rep. Matt Huffman, the new House Speaker. They and their colleagues are hell-bent on delivering even more aid to private and religious schools in flagrant violation of the clear language found in the Ohio Constitution.

In Article VI §2 of our foundational governing instrument, the Ohio Constitution clearly states the role of the legislature and its obligation in establishing and maintaining a system of common schools:

The key concepts in the above passage are a system, not systems of schools, and no public funds to religious sects which, by definition, cannot operate common schools open to all without restrictions.

Now, politicians like Brenner and Huffman think it’s good public policy to allow religious organizations like LifeWise Academy to teach Sunday School-type lessons on school days, disrupting the educational process. 

Carter taught Sunday school on Sunday at his church, not during the school day.

In addition, under the provisions of HB 445 as introduced, a student may receive high school graduation credit for the time spent in released time religious instruction. So much for the perennial talk by conservatives about strengthening the high school core curriculum, courses of study, and high school graduation requirements.

Notwithstanding all of the division present in the nation, we need to celebrate the life of a devout Southern Baptist, a Sunday School teacher, school board president and American patriot who knew that the common school is the local public school open to all, regardless of religious affiliation. President Carter also knew that we support Baptist, Catholic and other religious schools through the Sunday collection plate, not the public treasury.

Ohioans should keep a close eye on the lawsuit filed by the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding and Vouchers Hurt Ohio to ensure that public funds are for public, not private or religious purposes. After all, that’s what the constitution says. Check here to see if your local public school district has joined the lawsuit to ensure that public funds are used for public purposes.

Our national motto is e pluribus unum, not ex uno plures. Ohioans who care about public schools need to let Brenner and Huffman and all our lawmakers know that we want to keep it that way.