Tag: school choice

House GOP desegregates DC school system.

Teachers’ unions, racists, Dick Durbin hardest hit:

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program — which provides low-income District students with federal money to attend private schools — is a top priority of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The program was closed to new entrants by Democrats in 2009, but Boehner has sought to revive and expand the program. The House passed a Boehner-authored bill last month — the SOAR Act — to reauthorize the program for five more years, and that bill will be included in the final spending deal and signed into law by Obama.

More background here.  The administration was surprisingly unequivocal in its opposition to “the creation or expansion of private school voucher programs that are authorized by this bill,” probably because poor minority kids don’t contribute to Democratic slush funds to the extent that the NEA does.  Killing the DC voucher program has been a priority for Democrats since they took full control of the government in 2009; watching the President sign it back into law is going to be one of the more satisfying things that I* will personally see next week.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Not to mention the Heritage Foundation, which has been fighting this one tooth and nail, and in the streets, all along.

#rsrh A must read on school choice.

The title is “The education debacle of the decade” – and wasn’t it, just? It’s about the Democratic party’s successful efforts to re-segregate the DC school system, in the guise of killing the Opportunity Scholarship Program… and I’m being even blunter about this than author Bob Ewing says that the Washington Post is being (no link to WaPo at site):

It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the [OSP] program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions.

Sure, teachers’ unions hate school choice.  Exposing a monopoly to market forces always ticks off the monopolists.  But even if the teachers’ unions had been on-board with the OSP, the single-minded way that the Democratic party leadership went hammer and tongs after this small program tells me that white, Democratic legislators have a real problem with poor minority students suddenly appearing in their white, privileged, private schools.  And now that they have both branches of government, they’re finally in a position to do something about it. Continue reading #rsrh A must read on school choice.

Democrats resegregate DC school system.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Are you surprised? I’m not surprised.

The leaders of D.C.’s school choice movement, Kevin P. Chavous (former D.C. Councilman) and Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice), today issued the following statement:

“House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known.

Via Big Government.  You know, there’s a part of me that would almost prefer that this was evidence of some sort of long term payback – one that would have been in the works for about 150 years at this point – against African-Americans by the Democratic party.  At least that would be a reason to wreck school choice.  It would be a conscious decision.  Instead, though, I’m faced with the tawdry reality that the Democratic Party simply just doesn’t care.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Using the Nobel money to keep those kids in school.

(Via @magnolia_tree) It’s a marvelous idea, really:

According to the Fox News White House blog:

The White House says that the President has decided to give the approximately $1.4 million prize accompanying his Nobel Prize to charity. They have not made a decision on which charity or charities will receive the money.

Here’s an idea for the President: He could give the 216 low-income kids back the scholarships that his administration took away from them earlier this year.

But if the President was gutsy enough to make that sort of gesture at the teacher’s unions, then those kids wouldn’t have had their program killed by the resegregationists in the first place.

Moe Lane

Did Obama’s children make him give way on School Choice?

I consider this theory provided by Jim Geraghty plausible.

…one or both of the Obama daughters, knowing that the cancellation of the program would mean some of their classmates would have to leave Sidwell Friends private school, urged their father to keep the program.

…for two reasons:

  1. It would involve his family, and I’ve never seen President Obama do anything that crosses his family.  Which is as it should be, of course.
  2. It allows me the hubris of pretending that somebody at the White House might actually be reading me*.

Moe Lane

*Admittedly, it’d be better if they were heeding me, too, but it’s always ‘one step at a time’ with this particular administration.

Crossposted to RedState.

Put Children First.

The DC School Choice Rally: video and pictures.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

I was lucky enough to make it to the DC School Choice Rally (sponsored by DC Children First and DC Parents for School Choice) today, thanks to a (liberal) friend of mine who was able to watch my son for a few hours – and who didn’t mind being asked for a favor like this on very short notice. Then again, she and her husband moved to their current address at least partly to make sure that their kids wouldn’t be stuck in a horrible public school. I understand that sentiment entirely: my wife and I made similar calculations.

The Weekly Standard, Heritage, and the Corner all have some good coverage on the rally (see also Instapundit), so I’m mostly going to just step back and let the videos of Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of DC Parents for School Choice) and the photos speak for themselves.  I will note this, though: this “compromise” that the administration is currently offering is nothing but.  It’s an attempt to get the heat off of both it and the teachers’ unions that are trying to gut school choice.  By keeping the existing program running long enough to finish out the current scholarship roster, the White House hopes to take the personal urgency off of the grassroot activists that are currently raising a stink.

And the grassroots activists know this. Continue reading Put Children First.

I am back from the DC school choice rally.

The one that was partially sponsored by DC Parents for School Choice.

The short version?

school-choice-rally-035

There were some very polite and very unhappy parents out there, and while I am not really good at counting crowds, there were a lot of people who wish to know why Congress has decided to gut this program. I have video interviews: I’ll be adding them once I can get Vista to admit that my camcorder exists.

Crossposted to RedState.

Hi, Sasha, Malia. Got a second?

I hope that you’re enjoying the White House, by the way.

It’s a pretty cool place for people your age, from what I’m told.

Anyway, I just thought that you should know: do you know Sarah & James Parker? They go to your school.

Yeah, them. Are they nice? I’ve never met them, so I don’t know. I do know that their parents really can’t afford to send them to your school without assistance; it’s called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and it lets over 1,700 poor kids in DC get scholarships every year. It’s often called a “voucher” program, although people who like school choice wouldn’t agree: they want everybody to have the chance to pick the best schools for their kid, instead of just a small number. Still, this program is helping people who are usually making about half of much as the federal poverty level; it’s hard to dispute that it’s a good one. I’m sure that Sarah & James think that it’s a good program.

Unfortunately, Senator Dick Durbin (D, IL) wants to throw them out of your school. Continue reading Hi, Sasha, Malia. Got a second?