The audacity of congressional Democrats is absolutely astonishing. Less than two months into the 111th Congress, they have made one of their top targets ending a popular scholarship program for 1,700 low-income D.C. students.
The $7,500 scholarships are the best thing that’s happened for District of Columbia students in the past decade — and one of the best investments Congress has made in education reform. Demand for the scholarships is so high that there are four applicants for each voucher, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the words of scholarship recipients, who have turned their attention to President Barack Obama in hopes he will rebuff the congressional Democrats’ vote to kill the $14 million program yesterday.
Leave it to liberals to pull the rug out from these struggling families. Without a scholarship, these students — 99% of whom are minorities — won’t be able to afford the private schools where President Barack Obama and members of Congress send their children. Scholarship recipients come from families with mere $23,000 annual income on average.
The threat posed to the Opportunity Scholarship Program is also an attack on the broader school choice movement — one that Obama spoke favorably of Tuesday when he promised to “open doors of opportunity for our children.” Failing to save the D.C. program will give liberals the impetus to attack successful school choice efforts elsewhere.
The scholarship program has the support of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who is trying to reform city’s notorious public school system, plagued by years of poor performance.
Not only is the program giving poor families hope for the future, it’s also a good value. As Andrew J. Coulson of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, explains in today’s New York Post:
The vouchers are worth an average of $6,000; last year, the District was spending $24,600 per student. If you could save 75 percent on a purchase, get the same or better quality of service, and know you’d be happier with the result, wouldn’t you do it? … It seems congressional Democrats would not.
For a party that claims to look out for the little guy, this is a clear sign that well-funded teachers’ unions (a major source of Democrat campaign cash) are really running the show. Putting this provision in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill without a single congressional hearing and no debate is an outrage.
The 1,800 students who participate in the program deserve the same educational opportunities as Sasha and Malia. How their father reacts will indicate if he’s going to kowtow to union politics or fulfill his promise to “open doors of opportunity for our children.”
Steve Maley
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
I'm not surprised
BlueLandRed (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:09PM EST (link)because the Dems see this as a voucher system and vouchers to them are the devil. Don’t expect Obama to save this program.
Excellent post
NickDeringer (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:10PM EST (link)Rush spoke about this yesterday. This is really appalling. Will the tingling leg media pick up on this?
NickDeringer
This is appalling.
Steve Maley (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:37PM EST (link)Big government Democrats don’t see individuals, they see programs, policies and constituencies.
And they don’t care much about helping individuals. They care about exercising power over their programs, policies and constituencies.
The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.
I don't like vouchers either
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:48PM EST (link)The linked to article is not good. Parents are already free to chose the educational environment that works best for their children. They are not victims forced to use public schools. By making them out to be helpless victims it only leads to more of an entitlement mentality.
Private schools have a great deal of freedom here. Vouchers are a threat to that.
What about being forced to pay?
Kyle-MI (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:54PM EST (link)Why am I as a taxpayer being force to pay for these liberal indoctrination centers masquerading as ‘public’ schools?
You are wrong about parents being free to chose the best education for their children. If the parent were free to pay for the education of their choice, the garbage that passes for ‘public’ education these days would sit vacant like it should.
free to choose
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:06PM EST (link)Why am I wrong about the parents being free to choose?
You are forced to pay for the liberal indoctrination centers because of mandatory attendance laws. That is the issue it is not due to a lack of vouchers. The whole problem is with government and schools tied together in the first place.
Analogy
Kyle-MI (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:24PM EST (link)This is a little bit contrived, but let me try this analogy. Let’s say the government has a program for supplying everyone with cars. You can either get a car from the government or can opt out and buy your own car from a private dealer, but you can’t do both. Even if you get your own car, you still have to pay for the government car. How many private car dealership do you think will be left? Do you see the problem with this type of ‘freedom’? It does not eliminate all your options but it does severally restrict them from what should be.
good analogy
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:44PM EST (link)I understand what you are saying now.
You are right about resctring it. It is burdensome.
We should be against the way it works in the first place and not try to counter it by expanding it more.
It isn't a question of being a victim
AKSteveB (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:56PM EST (link)It is a question of paying twice for the same thing. You are right about there always being strings attached though.
Hell is other people – Sartre
are low income parents really paying twice?
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:19PM EST (link)How much tax either federal or state or local tax do low income parents pay? I know nothing about DC and even less about taxes. I just know the low income do not pay taxes like the middle class does.
If they are low income and employed and they obvious have children they might be recieving close to $5,000 a year from the earned income credit too.
I guess they are paying some property tax if they have a house or inderectly through rent if they are not in government housing. I don’t know how taxes and the school system works. I just can’t imagine where the low income pays twice for things when their biggest tax burden is probably sales tax apart from ss/fica.
Why is this the only isse we takeup the paying twice for? Why don’t we apply it to other issues like food stamps or TANF or section 8?
I don’t understand why republicans seem to be ok with this type of mentality of the gov being responsible instead of the parents and then encouraging parental anger when they do not get what they want from the gov.
I don't like vouchers
itrytobenice (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:57PM EST (link)because I’m afraid of the camel’s head, but I really like refundable tax credits for tuition and/or books and materials. As long as the parent has control over the direction of the money, the gov’t doesn’t get to crowd in.
Proper grammar saves lives.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.
sorry mom2oneson, I must take issue here.
Attack Mode (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:03PM EST (link)This is just not true. Parents are paying for a service from the government in public education. Parents should be able to opt out of a failing system. by using vouchers and scholarship programs such as this.
Are you really suggesting that these families should not only pay taxes to support the public education system they don”t use, but also have to pay for what they do out of their own pocket? This seams a bit unreasonable to me.
I think we should, as conservatives, encourage more scholarships and voucher programs. Especially since we have seen results in both D.C. and post-Jindal LA.
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
I agree. Output-based subsidy is much better
Rod_Patrick (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:12PM EST (link)than putting your money to an inefficient institution.
Scholarships and vouchers directly to the deserving (willing and committed to study hard and make better of him/herself) students are generally the most effective way of showing “compassion” to our fellow Americans.
It’s also important that we know the name/s of the students who are receiving our help in order to track down the efficiency of the program that we are participating in.
Yes
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:37PM EST (link)I think they should take responsibility for their child’s education regardless of what taxes they are paying.
It is not that expensive to educate a child. We pour a huge amount of money into a failing system so people believe it is expensive. For $3,000 you can buy enough to educate a child from grades 1 – 12. We already have gov funded have public libraries which can make that number even less.
Vouchers will end up turning private schools into public schools eventually.
I am all for private scholarships but not for government funed ones.
Sorry but I think we will have to simply disagree then...
Attack Mode (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 3:48PM EST (link)First, your first sentence is rather insulting, you assume that these parents aren’t being responsible because they are receiving vouchers or scholarships, sorry but that doesn’t make much sense.
Second, Vouchers and Scholarships are not only for the low wage earner, my family was middle class and sent me to private schools after a couple of years of homeschooling. My dad took a job as a handyman/custodian at the school in order to mitigate the costs to our family.
Now you say that “vouchers will end up turning private schools into public schools”, I am not sure that is really the case. I look at it from the opposite side of the equation. I believe that vouchers and scholarships will allow for a way out of the failing school system, which will effectively weaken the special interest groups such as the NEA.
Lastly not everyone can stay at home and do grades 1-12 as home schooling because the cost of living nearly requires a two income household.
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
private schools
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 4:10PM EST (link)Aaron – I was answering your question.
“Are you really suggesting that these families should not only pay taxes to support the public education system they don”t use, but also have to pay for what they do out of their own pocket?”
“I think they should take responsibility for their child’s education regardless of what taxes they are paying.”
If they are paying taxes for the public school and the public school is not suitable, parents are still responsible to educate their child. An employer is not going to hire an illiterate adult as an editor because he knows the DC schools failed to teach him how to read. None of that matters when the child is an adult and has to face the real world.
The article was about low income families and these vouchers that is why I wrote the low income part.
I’m sorry~
I didn’t meant to insult you at all.
I think our end goals are the same here...
Attack Mode (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 4:19PM EST (link)we both want the govt out of education, at least that is what I gleaned from your other posts. The difference is the path we take to get there, I believe that opening up the opportunity to opt out is the way to go. from what I see from your posts, you would just change the mandatory enrollment and attendance laws, but that doesn’t resolve anything either.
So since we can’t just end the dept of Education and the public school system, how do we get to where we should be?
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
NEA
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 4:24PM EST (link)The NEA will get it’s way into private schools with vouchers. In some places teachers are not required to be certified or there may not be any teacher requirement at all except for fingerprinting/backround checks. The NEA will change that with vouchers.
It will work at first but as the years go by I believe they will deteriorate just like public schools have and they will lose their freedoms.
how to get there
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 4:40PM EST (link)I think it is a mistake to get there by inviting the gov into to private schools that will turn them into all gov school eventually. The first thing is to teach people their rights about giving their child an education apart from public schools. Homeschooling is not expensive. There are many private scholarships to help with curriculum assistance too. Also parents can form co-ops and churches can donate their building space.
That NEA post was to respond to your other post! I’m a slow typer.
for some reason
mom2oneson (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 4:48PM EST (link)It seems like people stop thinking when they expect something. I have seen it over and over again. Example: A chid is failing math or they can’t read well.
The parent spends hours and hours of time and emotional energy fighting the school on getting a tutor for him. The child probably needs around 10 hours of 1 on 1 time. Why doesn’t the parent just pick up a $2 pack of flashcards or a phonics book from amazon or the library and help them? These are good parents too!!! It seems like people stop thinking though about ways to solve stuff when they think it’s the governments jobs I’m not criticizing individual parents but I have seen this repeatedly. The parents act helpless to the system. I think people first need to see education not dependent on the public schools.
you are just plain wrong
jackhammer Thursday, February 26th at 6:34PM EST (link)Aside from my personal opinion that virtually any homeschooled people I have come in contact with personify virtually every prejudice that society has of them (Tim Tebow being the only exception I can think of), the viability of that as an alternative for the children of low income parents is severely limited.
In a vast majority of these cases we are talking about children whose parents have a combined yearly income of under $23,000 (that is about what is necessary to qualify for the voucher). That could lead one to the logical conclusion that the education level of their parent(s) is probably below a high school diploma on average. There might also be a large portion of these children who come from single parent households. What put the families in this sort of situation (education and single parenthood), among other things, is a general failure of the government run education system. DC has consistently been among the worst performing school district in the nation, going back decades. Poorly educated parents probably are not the best home schoolers, and single parent households could only pursue homeschooling if they were to rely exclusively on welfare (not to mention that home schooling is just weird).
In order to give these children a legitimate chance to break out of the downward spiral they are in by being in DC, and by being in a low income situation, a voucher system allowing choice and competition among schools is the best use of taxpayer money that you can imagine.
It is irrelevant if the taxes were paid by “their” parents, or by other people…the facts of public education is that the taxes are paid in an incredibly progressive manner, and with no regard to whether the people take advantage of the service or not (wealthier people tend to live in bigger houses with higher property taxes and send their kids to private school, or perhaps have no school age children whatsoever)……but given that the tax money is collected, it should be in everyone’s best interest that the results achieved with this money are the best they can be. With vouchers, the results are demonstrably better than with the public school sytem, and at significantly lower cost per pupil. how can that not be a positive?
I personally would love to follow the progression of these children, and see them strive and break out of the cycle of poverty that the DC school system has contributed to for so many decades.
I'm not wrong
mom2oneson (Diary) Friday, February 27th at 1:17AM EST (link)You do not understand homeschooling. Your post is full of inaccurate information. How many single homeschooling parents do you know? How many of them are on welfare? Have you looked at the performance of homeschooling vs public school kids in the situation you described where the parents are poorly educated?
Succesful homeschooling is not dependent on the parent’s education or income.
I brought up the parents not paying tax because of the why pay twice posts.
hardly any
jackhammer Friday, February 27th at 6:58AM EST (link)I enjoy social interaction, believe strongly in things like school sports and think the extra-curricular aspects of school were the most important for my personal development, Home-schooling has never been an option for consideration for me, and I doubt it should be implemented as a viable alternative for a significant proportion of the population. I know the stats show that the scholastic results are good, but it still seems like it is the domain of the socially akward, or those who “fear” their childrend being confronted with other values systems.
I went to a Catholic boys school for all of my elementary and high school. Our teachers were perhaps slightly more conservative than at a public school, but we had the odd commie, and I clearly remember vociferous debates erupting in class whenever someone tried to push an idealogy on us.
And I don’t really understand how a single parent with a low level of education could possibly pull off homeschooling and hold a job.
It's possible
mom2oneson (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 5:12AM EST (link)Just the same as single parents have children in public schools and hold a job. Public school is not for the 10 hours that most work days require when you factor in travel time. Public school is usually not for 12 months a year. Schools have more breaks than work weeks do too.
I won’t even try to answer the socialization, your spart. What you wrote shows your prejudice against homeschoolers.. If were around homeschoolers you would see how active they are in sports and activities.
My whole point is we should encourage parental responsibility. If the gov schools are dangerous and failing the kids, don’t hurry up and wait for the gov to solve it. Withdraw the children and give them an education outside the system. Public schools seems to be the only government service that republicans encourage a bigger government and entitlement/helpless mentality. The way the parents are written about in articles like this, like they are helpess victims, is the same exact way the dems present them.
correction
mom2oneson (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 5:18AM EST (link)“socialization part.”
“If you were around”
Sorry I wasn’t calling you a name!!!
But they are doing it for the children...
Kyle-MI (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:49PM EST (link)Well, no, that is not quite right.
This definitely puts the lie to all the Democratic attacks on Republicans as being uncaring.
I hate it when they do that to us, so I usually am loath to turn it about on them. However, it take a huge willing suspense of belief to see that as any else but rewarding the teachers’ union at the expense of children.
He's not going to help them either.
itrytobenice (Diary) Thursday, February 26th at 2:50PM EST (link)The Ds talk a good game, but they don’t care about the little guy. They owe a debt of gratitude to the teachers unions and it will be paid with the education of kids all over this country.
And it’s times like this I’m too discouraged to know any more. I swear I’m going to have to turn off the TV, quit reading the internet, plant my garden and cook a nice dinner. To H%$#!!! with those bottom dwelling slugs in this nation’s capitol.
Proper grammar saves lives.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.