A proposal to raise the income limits for families to qualify for D.C.’s controversial school vouchers program will be debated in the Senate this week, but the proposal has already drawn condemnation from the District’s congressional delegate.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees the District. He has said that the $14 million vouchers program needs to raise its income qualifications to keep students from leaving the program, which gives up to $7,500 to needy families to go to private schools.
But Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton says Brownback’s proposal would undermine the voucher program’s purpose by abandoning the truly needy.
Norton opposed the vouchers program two years ago but says that, now that it has been enacted, the program ought to be given a full five years for testing.
Under Brownback’s proposal, some families could stay in the program even if their income exceeded 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, families have to give up the vouchers when their income reaches 200 percent of the poverty level. That poverty level is defined as an annual income of $16,600 or less for a family of three and $20,000 or less for a family of four.
Advocates of Brownback’s proposal have said that hundreds of the nearly 1,800 families could be driven out of the program if the current standards remain.
But Norton says she’s skeptical. Last week, she called for the General Accounting Office to investigate the program, saying that officials weren’t doing a careful job of monitoring the program.
The Senate Appropriations Committee will take up the bill Thursday.
School voucher program
» Five-year pilot program
» 68 private schools currently participate
» 1,716 students used vouchers last year
– Source: The Heartland Institute
