Posted by: Press Staff (April 14, 2009, 01:56 PM)
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Scholarship Program sent letters this week to parents notifying them that the scholarships of up to $7,500, were being rescinded because of the decision by the Education Department.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