The Archdiocese of Washington is decrying the Obama administration’s decision to shut down the D.C. Public Schools voucher program, which subsidizes the tuition of hundreds of low-income students attending Catholic schools.
The voucher program, at the end of its initial five-year pilot phase, is to be eliminated under a budget provision offered by congressional Democrats and backed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. This year will be the program’s last — unless Congress is willing to put money in the budget to at least allow the current scholarship recipients to complete their educations.
Of the 1,700 students in the voucher program today, 879 attend a Catholic elementary or high school, according to the archdiocese. The landmark program, which provides each student up to $7,500 a year to offset private school tuition, costs the federal government $14 million a year.
“Secretary Duncan’s decision to ban new students from entering the program means federal money designated by Congress to help poor families will go unused,” Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill, superintendent of Catholic schools, said in a statement. “It is unfortunate and sad that poor families, who received eligibility letters, would now be denied access to funds appropriated by Congress for them.”
Having already closed numerous schools in recent years, the archdiocese stands to lose hundreds more students and millions of federal dollars.
“The Archdiocese of Washington is committed to doing all that it can to urge reauthorization of the Opportunity Scholarship Program because the program has been so successful, as the recent U.S. Department of Education study showed,” according to a statement from the organization.
The tuition for participating Catholic schools ranges from $4,000 to about $15,000 a year.
A U.S. Department of Education report released last month, on the effect of the voucher program after three years, found “a statistically significant positive impact on reading test scores.” Parents feel better about their children’s school, according to the analysis, and feel that their children are safer. But the study also found no statistical improvements in math test scores, and no achievement effects for students who applied from the lowest-quality public schools.
