By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – Some political officials say Tuesday's vote on Amendment Two could become a referendum on Governor Riley. They say the battle lines over the amendment are starting to look like last year's over Riley's unsuccessful tax plan, also known as Amendment One. Regardless, former U.S. Representative Glen Browder says the debate over Amendment Two will not end with Tuesday's vote but will resurface in 2006. Part of the amendment would remove Jim Crow provisions from Alabama's constitution. Those mandated segregated schools and poll taxes. No one seems to have a problem with that part of the amendment. What is causing the debate is the part that would also remove language from the constitution that says there is no right to an education at public expense in Alabama. Alabama voters put the language in the constitution in 1956 two years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown versus Board of Education ordered an end to segregated schools.