do "what's best for kids." So why won't he save a proven program that helps
low-income students?
May 4, 2009, 3:00pm
Mercedes Campbell is one of the 1,700 students in the Washington, D.C.
Opportunity Scholarship
Program<http://www.washingtonscholarshipfund.org/index.html>,
a school-voucher program authorized by Congress in 2004. The program gives
students up to $7,500 to attend whatever school their parents choose. For
kids like Mercedes, who now attends Georgetown Visitation Prep, the DC
voucher program is a way out of one of the worst school districts in the
country.
"It's different, now that I go to Visitation," says Mercedes. "I approach
things differently. It's like a whole new world, basically."
The program is wildly popular with parents and children—there are four
applicants for every available slot—and a recent Department of Education
study <http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094050/pdf/20094050.pdf> found that
participants do significantly better than their public school peers. Indeed,
after three years in private schools, students who entered the program at
its inception were 19 months ahead in reading of applicants unlucky enough
to still be trapped in D.C.'s public schools.
Yet working with congressional Democrats and despite his pledge to put
politics and ideology aside in education, the Obama administration has
effectively
killed the program through a backdoor legislative
move<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/10/AR2009041003073.html>.
"[Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan will use only one test in what ideas to
support with your precious tax dollars," says the president. "It's not
whether it's liberal or conservative, but whether it works."
That sort of doublespeak has left many Obama supporters not just puzzled but
outraged. Certainly, Mercedes is. "Out of everything else they can shut down
or everything else they can advocate for, they want to take this one thing
away?" Adds her mother, Ingrid, "We voted for you, we walked, we went to the
parade, we stood freezing. Why?...Can you get this tape over to Obama and
have him answer our questions? Why, sir, why?"
That's the question that will be asked on Wednesday, May 6, from 1P.M. to
2P.M., at a D.C. rally to reauthorize the voucher program. For more details,
go here <http://www.dcchildrenfirst.org/website/download.asp?id=52>.
"Barack Obama and the DC School Voucher Program" is approximately 5.30
minutes long and was produced by Dan Hayes and Nick Gillespie.
For iPod and HD versions, links to sources and related stories, and more, go
to Reason.tv <http://reason.tv/video/show/777.html>.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Michelle Antoinette says: get those nappy headed ragamuffin voucher kids out of my kids school
Posts
