This fall the citizens of South Dakota
will be voting on a constitutional amendment that is to correct
an ugly part of South Dakota’s history that has its roots
in discrimination against Catholics and Catholic education dating
back to the 1800s.
A Congressman Blaine ran for President on an anti-Catholic platform
in 1884, and while he was unsuccessful in seeking the White
House, he was successful in convincing his congressional colleagues
to include his bigoted language in the 1899 Enabling Act that
permitted South Dakota, North Dakota and two other states to
join the union.
Those states were required to place his anti-Catholic rhetoric
in their state constitutions, as a condition of statehood.
The vehicle of the day was to prohibit “sectarian”
aid to private schools, and in those days “sectarian”
meant “Catholic”. The Blaine Amendment to the South
Dakota Constitution can be found at Article V, Section 3 and
Article VIII, Section 16 to this day.
Last year some South Dakota school districts abruptly stopped
providing bus service to Catholic school students when questions
were raised about whether this was a form of sectarian aid.
Within a week the South Dakota legislature responded without
a dissenting vote, and passed SDCL 13-29-1.2, which permits
school district to provide transportation services to private
schools. In spite of that action, there have been lingering
question about the Blaine Amendment’s affect on that action
and other school district activities in South Dakota.
This year Speaker of the House Matt Michels and Senator Garry
Moore, both of Yankton, along with 31 senators and 65 representative
colleagues, all but 7 members of the legislature, co-sponsored
House Joint Resolution 1 to amend the state constitution. The
Amendment, if successful this fall, will allow the legislature
to allow school districts to enter into agreements with parochial
schools concerning transportation, technology and food services.
This is not the first time the citizens of South Dakota have
addressed amendments to ameliorate the impact of the Blaine
Amendment. In 1986, years of litigation concerning textbook
sharing were resolved by a constitutional amendment. In 2004
the voters will be asked again to address problems caused by
the Blaine Amendment. HJR 1 solves current controversies in
the state with respect to food service and busing, and is forward
looking in addressing the emerging technology area.
In 1999 the Arizona Supreme Court, another state victimized
by the Blaine Amendment, made this issue clear:
The Blaine Amendment was a clear manifestation of religious
bigotry, part of a crusade manufactured by the (in the 1890s)
contemporary Protestant establishment to counter what was perceived
as a growing “Catholic menace”...As one national
publication which supported the measure wrote. Mr. Blaine did,
indeed bring forward...a Constitutional amendment directed against
Catholics...Other contemporary sources labeled the amendment
part of a plan to “institute a general war against the
Catholic Church”.
It is too bad we weren’t allowed to get it right in 1889
when South Dakota entered the union, but the next best time
to do the right thing is today.
Hopefully the voters of South Dakota will see fit to amend the
Constitution and allow the historical cooperation between public
and private schools to continue for the benefit of all of our
children. Senator Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown is the Majority
Whip and a trial lawyer.
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