It appears that Obama is going to ask the Congress to extend the D.C. voucher program. However, he’s only going to extend it for the current participants.
In a March 6, 2009 letter to Obama, the NEA president Dennis Van Roekel called the D.C. program “an ongoing threat to public education in the District of Columbia” and urged Obama to “use your voice to help eliminate this threat” by opposing “any efforts to extend this ineffective program.”
The NEA should be abolished. The NEA doesn’t want any real education reform. In fact, the NEA has gone to great lengths to suppress any information that showed that the program is working. Even the Washington Post said the program deserves further study.
The study’s findings are no slam-dunk for the program’s success, but they are, by no means, proof of failure. Indeed, for the first time, researchers found statistically significant improvement in reading test scores for students offered vouchers and that, at the very least, demands further study.
How exactly can Van Roekel call the program “ineffective”? He’s being honest when he talks about eliminating the “threat.” The school choice solution is a threat to the status quo. There aren’t many people who will argue that the same old polices are working. Obama deserves some credit for extending the program, but he should urge the NEA to remove politics from the process. There’s no doubt the Democrat Party is against any “progressive” change to education. If Obama is able to resist the anti-choice members of his own party there’s hope for real change in education.
There was a rally in D.C. today for School Choice. More than 1,000 students, parents, and concerned citizens gathered across from city hall to rally in support of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. Dan Lips at The Corner has more…
If the purpose is to “fund what works,” why shouldn’t more kids be given the opportunity to participate in a program that has proven to improve the reading achievement of disadvantaged kids? To paraphrase Virginia Walden Ford of D.C. Parents for School Choice at today’s rally, we shouldn’t be satisfied until all families — regardless of background — can choose a quality school for their children.
Hopefully these parents and citizens keep up the good fight. The schools in D.C. are some of the worst in the nation. If this programs works there it will likely spread all over the country.
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