If Sen. Larry Craig’s unpardonable sin is hypocrisy, what are we to make of his fellow members of Congress whose personal behavior is likewise at odds with their votes? What about members of Congress who repeatedlyvote against school choice but send their own children to private schools?
A 2007 survey by the Heritage Foundation found that 37 percent of House members and 45 percent of U.S. senators send their school-aged children to private schools, a rate four times higher than the general public.
Especially striking are the large number of members of the Congressional Black Caucus (52 percent) and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (38 percent) who have opted out of public education. Lawmakers can’t be faulted for wanting the best education for their children. But they can and should be criticized for refusing to make more options available to their less well-heeled constituents.
Unfortunately, survey participants were promised they would not be identified by name, so there’s no list of individual members who don’t practice what they preach. But there’s enough of them to skew federal policy in the wrong direction. The foundation’s Evan Feinberg calculated that if all the members of Congress who sent their children to private school had voted for an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act providing scholarships to low-income students stuck in troubled and failing public schools, the measure would have passed easily.
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which passed by a one-vote margin in 2004 and expires in 2008, has provided school choice to 1,900 low-income District families concerned about low test scores, violence and other problems in the city’s public schools. Another 400 are on a waiting list, so there’s still pent-up demand for alternatives to a school system that’s already lost a quarter of its enrollment to public charter schools over the past few years.
The U.S. Department of Education reports that the average D.C. Opportunity Scholarship student receives a $7,500 scholarship and lives in a low-income family with almost three children supported by an annual income of $21,100. Ninety percent are black. Preliminary findings suggested modest academic improvements after one year, but significantly higher parental satisfaction and involvement — which itself is considered a key component of future academic success. That alone is reason enough to extend and expand the scholarship program.
When you know that children are drowning, your duty is clear: Throw them a life preserver.
