Oregon Compulsory Education Act
The Compulsory Education Act or Oregon School Law was a 1922 law in the U.S. state of
Background
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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of immigrants from
No class of citizens is more valuable to Oregon than is the industrious, thrifty, foreign-born farmer, who emigrates from unfavorable European conditions to carve out a home for his family in a new country. There is a certain immigration from Europe which is undesirable, especially that which congregates in our cities and towns, creating slum districts living below the standard of American workmen, and entering into ruinous competition with American labor.[2]
In 1920, 13% of the population in Oregon were immigrants, 8% were Catholic, and less than 0.4% were black (caused by Oregon black exclusion laws). Racial and religious prejudices were hard to break, however. A scant percent of Oregon’s students attended private school as well, about 7%, but more than three quarters of those private schools were run by the Catholic Church. In 1920, sociologist John Daniels said, “[Children] go into the kindergarten as little Poles or Italians or Finns, babbling in the tongues of their parents, and at the end of half a dozen years or more… [They] emerge, looking, talking, thinking, and behaving generally like full-fledged Americans.” For Protestants, public schools seemed like they could be used as the great American melting pot, to teach “Pure Americanism” to the new immigrants and assimilate them into Protestant culture.[1]
Enacting the Oregon Compulsory Education Act
In 1922, the
Outraged Catholics organized locally and nationally for the right to send their children to Catholic schools. In a 1925 decision, the United States Supreme Court declared the Oregon School Law unconstitutional in a ruling that has been called "the Magna Carta of the parochial school system." In the ruling, the Court asserted that "the child is not the mere creature of the state" and settled the question of whether or not private schools had a right to exist in The United States.
In 1929, Pope Pius XI explicitly referenced this Supreme Court case in his encyclical Divini illius magistri[5] on Catholic education. He quoted this part of the case, which says:
The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to recognize, and prepare him for additional duties.
See also
Further reading
- Lloyd P. Jorgenson. "The Oregon School Law of 1922: Passage and Sequel," The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Oct., 1968), pp. 455–466 in JSTOR
- David B. Tyack. "The Perils of Pluralism: The Background of the Pierce Case,"American Historical Review, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Oct., 1968), pp. 74–98 in JSTOR
- Text of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925) is available from: Findlaw Justia
References
- ^ a b Nicole L. Mandel (2012-03-12). "The Quiet Bigotry of Oregon's Compulsory Public Education Act". pp. 4–5. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
- ^ Bussel, Robert (June 25, 2017). "Understanding the Immigrant Experience in Oregon" (PDF). University of Oregon. p. 22.
- ^ "Proposed Constitutional Amendments and Measures to be submitted to the Voters of the State of Oregon for the General Election, Tuesday, November 7, 1922" (PDF). Sam A. Kozer, Secretary of State. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
- ^ "Initiative, Referendum and Recall: 1922-1928". Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State.
- ^ Pope Pius XI (1929-12-31). "Divini illius magistri". Retrieved 2010-08-17.