HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Democrats Kill School Choice in the Nation’s Capital

Despite promises to “fund what works,” President Obama signed a bill earlier this year which effectively kills the DC Opportunity Scholarships Program, a popular school choice program started by Congress in 2004.  The President has said he will extend the program until all current participants graduate from high school, but will not accept any new applicants, The Washington Post reported last week.

More than 2,000 students have been able to attend one of the D.C. area non-public schools through the program since it was established, and more than 7,200 have applied for scholarships, demonstrating the overwhelming public demand in the District among parents for new educational options for their children.

However, Democrats stripped funding for the program in the massive $410 billion omnibus spending bill.  Despite passing a bill littered with 9,000 earmarks and which boosts government spending by nearly 10 percent over the previous year, the President and the Democrats in Congress apparently couldn’t find a mere $14 million to provide a better future to the children of the nation’s capital through the DC Opportunity Scholarships Program.

Why is the DC Opportunity Scholarships Program (OSP) worth preserving?  A Department of Education study released in March offers some reasons:

• Overall, those offered a scholarship were performing at statistically higher levels in reading equivalent to 3.1 months of additional learning.
• The program received high marks from parents and students alike.
• To qualify, students must come from a home that is at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line.

And, according to DC Children First, students who participate in the program: “come from families with an average income of approximately $22,000 a year, and have standardized reading and math test scores below the 33rd percentile.”  Moreover: “Without the scholarship, 86 percent of the students participating in the program would otherwise have been assigned to attend a D.C. Public School in need of improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.”

More than 1,000 people attended a rally last week, pleading for the school choice program to be continued.  But despite calls from former Mayor Williams of Washington, D.C. and House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), the President and his Congressional allies seem intent on killing school choice. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board wrote yesterday that: “The teachers’ unions hate vouchers, so bye-bye, D.C. voucher program.  What a sock in the eye to kids and parents motivated enough to seek a school where they can get a better education.”

The DC school choice program is offering hope to children who otherwise would have almost no opportunity to receive a quality education.  The President has made the right choice in allowing children currently in the program to stay in it, but it’s the bare minimum that really needs to be done for these families.  The Administration and Congress should allow the program to continue on a permanent basis to ensure children continue to benefit from it in the future.

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Juan Williams Calls End to School Choice an “Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids”

In a blog post on the Fox Forum yesterday, National Public Radio Senior Correspondent and Fox News commentator Juan Williams called the Democrats’ effort to eliminate the successful Opportunity Scholarship Program an “Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids.”  Williams called education the “key civil rights issue of this generation” and blasted the President and his Administration for standing by and doing nothing to protect the school children of the nation’s capital while Congressional Democrats pulled funding for the popular school choice program:

If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students…

By going along with Secretary Duncan’s plan to hollow out the D.C. voucher program this president, who has spoken so passionately about the importance of education, is playing rank politics with the education of poor children.  It is an outrage.

Williams also noted that, “This voucher programs is unique in that it takes no money away from the beleaguered District of Columbia Public Schools.”

Juan Williams isn’t alone in his critique of the Democrats’ record on school choice.  Former Democratic Mayor of Washington Anthony A. Williams and Kevin P. Chavous, a former Democratic member of the D.C. Council, recently penned an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled “Education, By Any Means.”  Mayor Williams and Councilman Chavous stated that:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Omnibus Denies School Choice to Washington, D.C. Students

Congressional Democrats are scheming to deny low-income parents and students in the nation’s capital a popular school choice program by inserting a provision mandating Congress renew the program before more money is spent on it.  While this may sound innocuous enough, it would serve as a death blow to the groundbreaking D.C. school choice program - a goal Congressional Democrats have sought since taking control of Congress in 2007.  By burying their attempt to kill school choice in a $410 billion, 1,122 page omnibus spending bill, Democrats seem to acknowledge that their plan to deny residents of the District access to the school of their choice wouldn’t stand the light of public scrutiny if it had been subject to an open debate.  Perhaps that’s why they wrote this bill behind closed doors and without Republican input, and kept the bill secret until the last possible minute before attempting to rush it through the House.

The Heritage Foundation put together a powerful video with testimony from D.C.’s school children imploring Washington Democrats not to scrap school choice in the nation’s capital:

Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) decried the Democrats’ attempt to kill school choice:

The D.C. school choice program has provided hope for thousands of low-income children in the District of Columbia since it was established, and has been demonstrating results when it comes to parental satisfaction and increased parental involvement.  Eliminating this program would represent an irresponsible and shameful act on the part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, and the children of the District of Columbia deserve better.

The Congressional Democrats’ plan has not gone unnoticed, however.  Today, The Washington Post featured an editorial on the subject, which described the Democrats’ omnibus spending bill as “an ill-disguised bid to kill a program that gives some poor parents a choice regarding where their children go to school.”  The Post goes on to note that “[m]any of the Democrats have never liked vouchers, and it seems they won’t let fairness or the interests of low-income, minority children stand in the way of their politics.  But it also seems they’re too ashamed — and with good reason — to admit to what they’re doing.”

At a time when Americans are hurting, now is not the time to deny families access to a quality education of their choice; it’s also not a time to grow the size and scope of government - especially by paying for it on the backs of our children and grandchildren.

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