Thursday, March 11, 2010

Slim hope for successful DC voucher program

The power of the teachers unions over the Democratic party is clearly illustrated by the sad fate of the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, which gives almost entirely poor minority kids a voucher and chance to attend a private school. It's been successful -- a lot of kids have been able to escape dangerous government schools and the parents are just tickled. But the District is a federal enclave, so the budget comes from the feds, and despite all the brave talks about Education Sec. Arne Duncan being a brave and bold reformer, the administration decided to provide just enough money for those already wenrolled and no more.

However, Joe Liebrman and some others have a bill to restore the program. Harry Reid hasn't brought it to a vote yet and seems in no hurry to do so. But there's some hope. I'm a separation of school and state kinda guy myself, but anything that weakens the government monopoly on schooling even a little bit is welcome

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

But WHY ARE those dangerous government schools so dangerous?

Alan Bock said...

uncontrolled thuggery