Growing Oppostion To Virginia Governor's Essay Requirement

Governor McDonnell has growing opposition to his new requirement that non-violent criminals need to write an essay non-violent criminals need to write an essay on what their contributions to society are since they were released from prison.  The essay is a new requirement to have their voting rights restored.  The ACLU is now involved because they feel it is not fair to make certain groups of people - that may not be capable of writing an essay - perform this task to get their voting rights back.

If you read the article maybe you will come away with the same feeling I got from reading it.  Several groups are saying race, money and schooling are to blame and criminals may not be capable of meeting the requirements.  Are they not singling out a particular race in the article?  Would this
 constitute being racist?  Doesn't the government flood schools with taxpayer money so that all children have the opportunity for an education?  Don't we have a no child left behind policy in this country?
If these people don't have the intelligence to write a simple essay on how they contribute to society - who helps them vote?