Birthright citizenship issue could be problematic for GOP
There are substantial implications of the White House executive action rescinding automatic birthright citizenship. If a birth certificate is not sufficient evidence to establish U.S. citizenship, there could be substantial problems for blue-blooded families in documenting their citizenship status.
For example, virtually all of my ancestral family lines extend to immigrants who arrived in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries before a documented naturalization process establishing U.S. citizenship. Fortunately for many of my native Southerner friends, their ancestors who fought in the rebellion afterward swore allegiance to the U.S. government and received formal reinstatement of citizenship.
Establishing citizenship based on an ancestor’s citizenship could require extensive genealogical efforts by long-established families, especially Unionists. For those families with illiterate ancestors, this can get difficult. The research standards for such documentation could be a major hurdle in states fighting voter registration fraud.
Besides the potentially major problems for the Secretary of State’s office in establishing U.S. citizenship of voters to the new standards, there is another potential political impact. The Democrats have proportionately more members with recent immigrant ancestors with naturalization documentation to establish citizenship. Thus, Republicans could face substantially higher rates of disenfranchisement than Democrats. This could result in a Democrat sweep of Georgia political offices until the issue is resolved.
A. WARREN LIPPITT, COBB COUNTY
Better ways to improve education than vouchers
I appreciate Mark O’Leary’s passion for education in his recent editorial column (“I’m a UGA student and I back school choice,” AJC, Jan. 16), but I disagree with his conclusion that state funding of “school choice” will meet the educational needs of Georgia’s students.
Georgia’s current $6,500 voucher program doesn’t come close to covering the costs of many private schools and simply rob needed resources from public schools.
There are many other arguments against these vouchers, but to me the bottom line is that no one is opening a private school begging to be sent the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. As top students are cherry-picked from public schools, their results look even worse, leading to further condemnation of public school performance. There are better ways to improve our schools, and giving money to families who might already have children in a private school isn’t it.
I’d start by increasing the number of classroom teachers and reducing class size.
JOHN DONEGAN, ATLANTA
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