A powerful Republican congressman has introduced a bill to save the D.C. private school voucher program, which is slated to end after this school year without intervention.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, of Ohio, joined by two Republican colleagues, proposed legislation Thursday to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program for another five years. Roughly 1,700 low-income youth currently receive up to $7,500 a year for private school tuition through the program.
By shutting down vouchers, as congressional Democrats directed in the approved 2009 budget, Congress would “bow to the education establishment and opponents of reform by forcing nearly 2,000 students out of their schools,” Boehner said in a statement.
“Ending it at the behest of powerful special interests would be shameful,” he said.
President Barack Obama included $12.2 million in his 2010 budget for D.C. vouchers, but language in the bill bars any new applicants from joining. Current participants should not be forced out before they graduate, Obama aides have said, but the program has run its course.
The Boehner bill finds that “funds are needed to assist low-income parents with exercising their right to choose among enhanced public opportunities and private educational environments, whether religious or nonreligious.” More than half of voucher recipients attend a Catholic school.
The legislation, co-sponsored by California Republican Reps. Darrell Issa and Howard McKeon, provides $14 million for vouchers in fiscal 2010. It requires that the Washington Scholarship Fund the current program manager, rebid for the contract. It raises the annual voucher amount to $8,000 for K-8 and $12,000 for high school. And it mandates continuing yearly evaluations.
With Democrats in control of Congress by wide margins, the measure has a long road ahead.
“The reasons to continue funding the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program are convincing,” Issa said in a statement. “It’s working for students and it’s wanted by parents. This program should be judged on its merits, not political agendas.”
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has said he supports continuing the three-tiered approach to federal education funding — equal money for public schools, charter schools and vouchers.
