Signature Presidential Initiatives
Educational Opportunities for Disadvantaged Youth
The Issue
- In 2001, too many students were trapped in chronically underperforming schools.
- Those stranded in long-struggling schools were overwhelmingly low-income and minority children.
- Without access to higher performing educational alternatives, America’s historically disadvantaged students would continue to lag behind their peers and be denied opportunities that result from a quality education.
The Response: School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services
- President Bush sought to address America’s K–12 education challenges through two related strategies: strengthening public education through greater flexibility and accountability; and providing educational alternatives for students trapped in failing schools.
- While the No Child Left Behind Act has primarily marshaled the considerable strength of local, State, and Federal agencies to vigorously pursue the first strategy, faith-based and community-based organizations have played a key role in the second strategy.
- The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), enacted in 2004 under President Bush’s leadership, provides disadvantaged students in the nation’s capital with scholarships of up to $7,500 to attend a participating faith-based or other private school.
- Today, more than 1,900 students attend one of 54 participating nonpublic schools in the District of Columbia.
- In his 2008 State of the Union address and 2009 Budget, the President revised these proposals, introducing a new $300 million Pell Grants for Kids program, which would provide scholarships to low-income students attending public schools by restructuring status or high schools with low graduation rates.
- Students attending a Title I low-income school identified as in need of improvement for 2 or more years are eligible for Supplemental Educational Services (SES). Parents of eligible students may obtain these free services for their children from any approved provider of their choice.
- Many faith-based and community-based organizations have become State-approved providers and are currently receiving aid to help disadvantaged public school students improve academically by providing tutoring and other enrichment services.
The Results
- More than 2,600 low-income District of Columbia students have enrolled at nonpublic schools through the OSP since 2004.
- For school year 2005–2006, approximately 515,000 children were served under SES.
- A 2007 study by the RAND Corporation found that
- in a sample of nine large urban districts, students receiving SES experienced gains in achievement that were statistically significant;
- there is evidence that effects may be cumulative: students participating for multiple years experienced gains twice as large as those of students participating for one year; and
- African-American and Hispanic students had the highest participation rates in SES, and experienced positive achievement effects from participating in SES.
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