The budget deal Congress will vote on this week includes a program to provide private-school vouchers to low-income D.C. students, despite protests from the D.C. mayor, members of Congress, and teachers union that the scholarship fund doesn’t improve test results. But as Congress gears up for a vote on the deal, which would provide $100 million over five years for the
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Fund, advocates of school choice argue that the program boosts graduation rates and student wellness — and that its detractors just want to keep their clout.
The voucher program was the first federally funded K-12 scholarship program in the nation when it was created in 2004 to subsidize private schools in the District by up to $7,500 for a few thousand low-income D.C. children.
However, Congress allowed the five-year program to expire in 2009 amid conflicting studies on whether the vouchers actually approved educational outcomes.
“Rigorous evaluation over several years demonstrates that the D.C. program has not yielded improved student achievement by its scholarship recipients compared to other students in D.C.,” the Obama administration said.
On Tuesday, D.C. congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton asked the House Rules Committee to redirect money from the private school voucher program to D.C. Public Schools and public charter schools.
Mayor Vincent Gray also disavowed the program, while American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said teachers were “very disappointed that this deal wastes scarce tax dollars on school vouchers in the District of Columbia, a program that has been shown to be ineffective at raising student achievement.”
Neither Maryland nor Virginia has a voucher program.
National Education Association President Van Roekel said the restoration of the voucher program made “absolutely no sense.”
Four U.S. Department of Education studies concluded that the program had no effect on the academic achievement of students from “schools in need of improvement,” the students Congress designated as the highest priority for the program.
Students’ satisfaction, motivation, engagement and perception of school safety also remained steady, while some students were less likely to have access to special needs programs and counselors.
But advocacy groups have challenged the research, charging opponents with trying to score political points with labor unions since private schools are not unionized.
“The president in particular is opposed to the program because one of his biggest benefactors is teachers unions, and they oppose school choice, period,” said Kyle Olson, chief executive officer of the Michigan-based Education Action Group.
Olson’s organization said that while studies of D.C.’s program showed no effect, nine of 10 other nationwide reports show that the competition that vouchers improved their city’s public school systems.
“This is not surprising, since the D.C. voucher program is the only one designed to shield public schools from the impact of competition,” he said.
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown testified before the House that he supports the voucher program, of which House Speaker John Boehner is a major advocate. “I cannot look a working mother in the eye and tell her that she deserves less choice, not more,” Brown said.
