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

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new applicants includes 216 families who had been awarded scholarships for the upcoming academic year, only to see them rescinded on the Secretary of Education's orders.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 in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

About 200 low-income children and their families in the District of Columbia were hit with bad news last week courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education. Although the children had been planning to use federally-funded scholarships to attend the private school of their choice for the upcoming school year, the Department decided after the fact that no new students would be welcome in the scholarship program, despite its growing track record of success and parental satisfaction.

The Department’s decision comes as a surprise – and a disappointment – to congressional Republicans who wrote Education Secretary Arne Duncan earlier this month urging him to allow as many students as possible to participate in the scholarship program. Apparently, the decision isn’t sitting well with The Washington Post’s editorial board either. Over the weekend, the paper took issue with the decision to deny educational options to poor children and families:

“Officials who manage the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program sent letters this week to parents notifying them that the scholarships of up to $7,500, were being rescinded because of the decision by the Education Department. Citing the political uncertainty surrounding vouchers, a spokesperson for Mr. Duncan told us that it is not in the best interest of students and their parents to enroll them in a program that may end a year from now. Congress conditioned funding beyond the 2009-10 school year on reauthorization by Congress and approval by the D.C. Council. By presuming the program dead -- and make no mistake, that's the insidious effect of his bar on new enrollment -- Mr. Duncan makes it even more difficult for the program to get the fair hearing it deserves. …

“[S]cholarship officials have been upfront with parents about the risks, and the decision really should be theirs. Let them decide whether they want to chance at least one year in a high-quality private school versus the crapshoot of D.C. public schools.

“That, after all, is what this program is about: giving poor families the choice that others, with higher salaries and more resources, take for granted. It's a choice President Obama made when he enrolled his two children in the elite Sidwell Friends School. It's a choice Mr. Duncan had when, after looking at the D.C. schools, he ended up buying a house in Arlington, where good schools are assumed. And it's a choice taken away this week from LaTasha Bennett, a single mother who had planned to start her daughter in the same private school that her son attends and where he is excelling. Her desperation is heartbreaking as she talks about her daughter not getting the same opportunities her son has and of the hardship of having to shuttle between two schools.”

Republicans haven’t given up the fight, and plan to do all that they can this year to ensure children and families will continue to benefit from this popular and proven scholarship program in the nation’s capital. Although the Post rightly points out that politics are at play, it’s hard to ignore the pleas of children who just want the chance to attend a better school.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

It’ll take an act of Congress to keep two classmates of the President’s daughters in school…

This morning on WTOP radio, Cal Thomas commented on congressional Democrats’ plans to destroy the Washington D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Click HERE to listen to the audio.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

The Wall Street Journal editorial page today carries a harsh critique of congressional Democrats' plans to kill of the innovative Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The program provides scholarships of up to $7,500 to low-income families in the nation's capital, helping them escape a troubled school system that is working hard to improve. But if congressional Democrats have their way, these children will be forced to return to unsafe, under-achieving schools. As the Wall Street Journal notes:

President Obama made education a big part of his speech Tuesday night, complete with a stirring call for reform. So we'll be curious to see how he handles the dismaying attempt by Democrats in Congress to crush education choice for 1,700 poor kids in the District of Columbia.

The omnibus spending bill now moving through the House includes language designed to kill the Opportunity Scholarship Program offering vouchers for poor students to opt out of rotten public schools. The legislation says no federal funds can be used on the program beyond 2010 unless Congress and the D.C. City Council reauthorize it. Given that Democrats control both bodies -- and that their union backers hate school choice -- this amounts to a death sentence.

This comes just a day after the Washington Post carried a similar editorial blasting the Democrats' decision and arguing that the phase-out of the program is an attempt to hide the truth about what they're doing.

CONGRESSIONAL Democrats want to mandate that the District's unique school voucher program be reauthorized before more federal money can be allocated for it. It is a seemingly innocuous requirement. In truth it is an ill-disguised bid to kill a program that gives some poor parents a choice regarding where their children go to school. Many 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.

Republicans created this program in 2004 with bipartisan support as part of a comprehensive plan to reform the District's school system. And since that time, we've been fighting to protect the program and ensure that while D.C. schools work to overcome decades of decline, students will have options today to access a quality education. Unfortunately, Democrats seem to be doing all that they can to take away those options.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

"There is no such thing as a permanent program. Every program needs to be authorized or re-authorized."  So said a top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) when asked by the Examiner why Congressional Democrats inserted language into the omnibus appropriations bill that would phase out the popular D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

For the unfamiliar, a bit of background: The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program provides scholarships of up to $7,500 annually to low-income children in the nation’s capital.  Since 2004, the program has proven a lifeline for struggling parents who want to enroll their children in safer, higher-achieving schools; parents who have no other way to escape the D.C. public school system, which is among the lowest-performing in the country.

Of course, anyone familiar with Washington knows that there IS such a thing as a permanent program. Most federal programs are permanent, even if they are no longer useful. And federal programs tend to live on and on, even if they have not technically been reauthorized, despite the Speaker's aide's comments to the contrary. In fact, there are currently more than 100 programs under the jurisdiction of the House Education and Labor Committee that have not been reauthorized or reformed, some as far back at 1993.  Using the Democrats' logic, Congress would stop funding the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities (last passed by Congress in 1993), Americorps and other national service programs (last reauthorized in 1996), child care and development block grants (last examined in 2002), or those education programs that serve disadvantaged students in public schools under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (last reauthorized in 2001).

But in a way, this debate misses the point. The real issue shouldn't be technicalities of federal funding. What's at stake is the future of low-income children in the nation's capital. Low-income children who were trapped in dilapidated, dangerous, and dysfunctional schools. Certainly, the D.C. public school system has an ambitious leader who is committed to change. But in the mean time, do we really want to tear educational opportunity away from these children?

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

We’re not in the business of defending individuals who break state or local law, but something just rubs us the wrong way when parents are imprisoned for wanting the best education for their kids.  Last week, Yolanda Hill appeared in the Greece Town Court in New York for a preliminary hearing to answer charges that she illegally enrolled her children in Greece schools. Though she lives in Rochester, she used her children’s grandmother’s address to establish a false residency because the Greece school system could provide a better education for her kids.  According to her teenage daughter, Santazcha Hill, "My mom only did what was right because she loved us.  She's not a criminal." 

We’re not arguing about the merits of state residency programs, whether parents should be required to pay tuition charges to school districts if their kids aren’t residents, or the ability of states such as New York to set their own education laws.  But it sure doesn't say much about educational opportunity in this country when parents feel they have no choice but to break the law in order to ensure that their kids are achieving academically. 

For years, House Republicans have worked to ensure that parents are able to choose to send their children to higher performing public or private schools if their children’s schools fell short in providing a quality education.  From Cleveland and Milwaukee to Florida and Washington, D.C., Congress, states, and local communities have been embracing parental empowerment in education.  When Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), it made it possible for students to transfer to better performing public schools – including charter schools – within the school district or receive additional educational services, such as private tutoring.  But even with these new options (which some in the education establishment are attempting to weaken, see here), it remains clear that there is more work left to do. 

If Democrats in Congress and the new Administration are truly serious about education reform, they must get truly serious about giving parents the tools they need for their children to thrive.  That starts by empowering parents with more choice.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

The Washington Post editorial page has offered some of the most thoughtful commentary on the groundbreaking D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program since its creation in 2004.  A number of editorials have appeared in recent weeks defending the program against a small number of education reform opponents who seem determined to put an end to these scholarships, despite their early successes.  The editorial appearing in today's Post speaks for itself.  It opens:

Among the most maddening arguments used against the D.C. school voucher program is that it hurts the public schools. Any money set aside for vouchers comes on top of a generous federal allocation for the city's public and charter schools. Any effect of the vouchers on public education has yet to be established or studied. Most of all, which members of Congress would accept an argument that they should be forced to send their children to a failing school for the good of the school?

Click through for the full editorial, it's worth the read.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

Earlier this week, it was reported that education reform opponents are setting out to do the unthinkable -- they plan to defund and abolish the successful and hugely popular D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to disadvantaged children here in D.C. so they can escape one of the most troubled school systems in the nation.

Not surprisingly, an outcry has arisen from across the ideological spectrum.  Just today, the Washington Post's editorial page offered a harsh denunciation of efforts to eliminate the program and strip away the promise of educational opportunity from low-income families in the nation's capital.  As the Post editorialized:

For parents such as Patricia William, that means the probable loss of an educational opportunity that has transformed her 11-year-old son. Ms. William is not alone in her praise of the program and in her panic about the possibility of its demise. The voucher pilot is intended to measure and compare children's progress in private schools over a span of several years. But one result already is known: Poor parents do not want their children automatically consigned to failing schools any more than middle-class parents would. Talk to parents and grandparents of children afforded what should not be the luxury of choice and you'll hear stories of thanks and success -- stories of young women such as Tiffany Dunston, this year's valedictorian at Archbishop Carroll High School. Ms. Norton turned a deaf ear to these accounts during a recent meeting, dismissing the scholarship families as "befuddled." Catherine Hill, whose grandson graduated from the Academy for Ideal Education, told us that the only thing the group doesn't understand is why Ms. Norton "hates a program that works so well."

Much, though certainly not all, of the opposition to vouchers is rooted in Democratic interest-group politics and the traditional resistance of teachers unions to change. And that is what should worry [D.C. Mayor Adrian] Fenty. If this worthwhile program can be sacrificed, so can the many vital reforms he and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee are hoping to put in place.

This follows another powerful editorial in defense of this innovative program appearing yesterday in the Wall Street Journal:

Democrats in Congress have finally found a federal program they want to eliminate. And wouldn't you know, it's one that actually works and helps thousands of poor children.

We're speaking of the four-year-old Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program that provides vouchers to about 2,000 low-income children so they can attend religious or other private schools. The budget for the experimental program is $18 million, or about what the U.S. Department of Education spends every hour and a half.

This fight has nothing to do with saving money. But it has a lot to do with election-year politics. Kevin [Chavous], the former D.C. City Council member who sits on the oversight board of the scholarship program, says, "If we were going to do what was best for the kids, then continuing it is a no-brainer. Those kids are thriving." More than 90% of the families express high satisfaction with the program, according to researchers at Georgetown University.

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was created in 2004 with strong bipartisan backing in recognition of the extreme disadvantages facing children in the nation's capital.  For families who would otherwise be trapped in underperforming schools, the Opportunity Scholarship Program offers a lifeline, and one that has proven immensely popular with students and their parents alike.  Congressional leaders are rallying their support for the program.  But ultimately, this is a question of children's interests vs. special interests.  The choice should be clear.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink

The Washington Post published an editorial today highlighting the popularity and strength of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships that allow low-income children to gain access to a private education.  Enacted in 2003, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has been a resounding success, with demand continually outpacing the supply of scholarships and parents expressing satisfaction with their new educational options.  As the article notes:

"Political ideology and partisan gamesmanship should not be allowed to blow apart the educational hopes of hundreds of D.C. children.  Congress must respect the judgment of District leaders in giving parents a choice in one of the most crucial aspects of their children's lives."

Congress has an opportunity to maintain support for this groundbreaking program by funding President Bush's FY 2009 funding request for education in the district, which includes $18 million for the Opportunity Scholarship Program as part of an overall $74 million request to support schools in the nation's capital.  It will be an important test for educational freedom ... stay tuned.

Posted in School Choice | 0 Comments | Permalink