More than 1,150 District students applied for vouchers to attend private school next year, on top of the 1,650 who are already participating in the federally funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, city officials say.
The voucher program was flooded with 1,558 applications when Congress renewed it last year. But as the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. continues to count this year’s applications, demand remains strong among parents looking to enroll their children in private schools.
“There are still a number of families that have a distrust of the public school system, whether it’s D.C. Public Schools or charter schools,” Ed Davies, CYITC’s vice president of external affairs, told The Washington Examiner.
Not everyone who applies for the vouchers — up to $8,000 for elementary and middle schools, and $12,000 for high schools — ends up enrolling in private school. Of last year’s 1,558 applicants, just over 1,000 were awarded scholarships, and 745 took them.
Meanwhile, enrollment in the District’s public charter schools increased 8 percent this year. While D.C. Public Schools saw a 1 percent enrollment drop this year, applications to enroll in preschool, prekindergarten or a school outside a child’s neighborhood increased nearly 10 percent for next year.
Davies said he believed the voucher program would remain popular even as public schools improved, because “even when public schools are great, there are private schools that are still highly sought-after.”
But other factors could curb the program’s growth. President Obama’s 2013 budget does not include funding for the program, which was barely reauthorized last year. Congress renewed the scholarship program for $100 million over five years last April.
HyeSook Chung, executive director of DC Action for Children, said the vouchers are a “mixed blessing,” depending on the perspective you take.
“In terms of advocating from the point of a parent, I think it’s great that they’re available,” Chung said. “From a more systemic perspective, I worry we’re not tackling some of the issues behind education reform and why we need this choice.”
