House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

Blog

The Fight for DC Children Continues

If Democrats assumed that residents of the nation's capital would quietly stand by as the federal government wiped out a scholarship program that serves the city's poorest families, they had better think again. Months after Democrats first went public with their plans to kill the program, D.C. parents and the city's own elected leaders continue to speak out against the decision that will leave children no escape route from one of the most troubled school systems in the nation.

A small victory was won earlier this year when - under public pressure - the White House announced a compromise that allows current scholarship recipients to remain in the program while denying any funding for new applicants. This group of new applicants includes 216 families who had been awarded scholarships for the upcoming academic year, only to see them rescinded on the Secretary of Education's orders.

Seven members of the D.C. City Council wrote a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty late last month urging them to continue to support the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and restore scholarships for those 216 families.

"We believe we simply cannot turn our backs on these families because doing so will deny their children the quality education they deserve," the Council members wrote.

The D.C. City Council isn't the only one continuing to fight for low-income children in the nation's capital. Recent editorials in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal underscore the unreasonable decision to end a successful program and take scholarships back from families who were counting on them for the upcoming school year.

Thankfully, the administration did commit itself to funding the program so that children currently enrolled can continue their education uninterrupted until high school graduation. Moreover, there is still a chance that Congress could reauthorize the program.

But that doesn't help parents such as Latasha Bennett, who's in an understandable panic over where her daughter will go to kindergarten next month. She had planned on the private school where her son (already a scholarship recipient) excels, but, without the voucher she was promised, she can't afford the tuition. She looked into her neighborhood public school and discovered that less than a third of the students there are proficient in reading or math. Charters weren't an option because most had filled up by the time she learned of Mr. Duncan's decision. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's office recommended four other places, but two have no kindergarten openings and the others are more than an hour's commute (by bus) away.

A review by D.C. Children First showed that nine out of 10 students who were shut out of the scholarship program this year are assigned to attend failing public schools. We realize that helping these 216 families is no substitute for fixing the problems that afflict D.C. and other urban schools. But, as Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Ms. Rhee work to improve the city's schools, what is to be gained by denying educational opportunities to children such as Ms. Bennett's 4-year-old Nia?

"A Plea to Mr. Duncan," Washington Post, July 10, 2009

~ ~ ~

The D.C. Council's letter shows that support for these vouchers is real at the local level and that the opposition exists mainly at the level of the national Democratic Party. Mr. Durbin has suggested that he included the D.C. Council provision in deference to local control. "The government of Washington, D.C., should decide whether they want it in their school district," he said in March. Well now we know where D.C. stands. We will now see if the national party stands for putting union power and money above the future of poor children.

"D.C. Council Wants Vouchers," Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2009

Posted by Press Staff (07-13-2009, 07:43 AM) filed under School Choice

---

  Comments No Comments.

---

  Submit a Comment

Name:
  
  E-Mail: