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Delegate Beachley is an educator in the
State who has served abroad for the State
Department. Dr. Pullen is the former State
Superintendent of Schools, and some of us
who are lawyers are not fooled by the at-
tempt to misdefine equal educational op-
portunity. I speak, when I speak as a
former teaher and a former educator for all
of the children in this State who have not
had equal educational opportunity —
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-half
minute, Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: —because they
had the misfortune to be born in rural
areas where there were no opportunities
for handicapped children, where there were
no vocational training schools in the little
towns and the like; and there is a tremen-
dous need and a responsibility and duty on
the part of this State, and the states of
this nation to provide every child with an
equal educational opportunity.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson, do
you desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: I do, Mr. Chair-
man.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may proceed.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
and ladies and gentlemen of the Committee
of the Whole, I want to assure Delegate
Wheatley that when I vote for this amend-
ment, I am not voting against equal oppor-
tunity in education for all, but I am voting
against what I consider to be a pie-in-the-
sky platitude, that at best is unenforceable
and at worst dangerous and misleading.
I do not believe that the amendment is
any help. I think that it is virtually the
same. In discussing the amendment "pro-
mote", we took a consensus on this side of
the room as to what the word "promote"
means; and we determined that it means
to be "provided by law."
Now, I did not believe that until I looked
at WEBSTER'S SEVENTH NEW COLLEGIATE
DICTIONARY, and the most applicable defi-
nition of the word "promote" is, "to help
bring into being"; so I suggest that the
consensus that we reached is correct, that
it does in fact mean to be provided by law.
The Majority Report states clearly, I
think, its intention, and I quote from that
report: "The Committee intends by this
section to endorse the right of every indi-
vidual to attain the highest fulfillment of
his individual educational capacity.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot so
guarantee in this constitution. It is impos-
sible and impractical to so guarantee, and
I urge you to adopt the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kirkland,
do you desire to speak in opposition to the
amendment.
DELEGATE KIRKLAND: Yes, Mr.
Chairman, I do. I think I have a few things
to clear up before, however, with Delegate
Lord. First and foremost, when he was
making his report, he referred to an article
and a statement that I made in the article.
At that time, I would agree that that was
exactly what I wanted it to mean, Delegate
Lord. However, after further Committee
meetings, I modified and so therefore I
went with the qualified statement of the
majority. That was done after the report
and the article in the newspaper that you
read from.
I think that many of you should pay heed
to the statement by Dr. Pullen. I think it
was the best statement, based on this par-
ticular article. Certainly I believe that edu-
cation is a basic right, a basic right that
we want to protect; and all I can say to
you, Delegate Johnson, is that I see nothing
wrong with helping to bring something
about for people who do not have the op-
portunities that maybe you and I had.
I oppose the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you ready for
the question? Delegate B. Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Mr. Chairman,
fellow delegates, I hope you will bear with
me. Those of us who were laymen bore
with you all yesterday afternoon, all this
morning.
To some of us the question of equal
opportunity in education is very important.
I may not have a lawyer's definition of
what equal opportunity in education is, but
fellow delegates, I can tell you that I know
what unequal opportunity in education is,
and I need no lawyer to come and tell me
what unequal education is.
I know that in Montgomery County, rich
as it is, there are many unequal education
opportunities; and I think that the 5,000
families in Montgomery County who live
below the poverty level know what unequal
opportunity for education is; when no spe-
cial teacher reaches the corners of our
counties, when the classes are larger, when
the facilities are poorer, when the libraries
do not have books, this is unequal educa-
tional opportunity and I do not think that
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