School choice = right-wing plot? We think not…
In today’s Washington Examiner, Robert Holland examines the debate over school choice in the District, and the fate of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program in Running out of rationales to oppose D.C. school vouchers.
Washington, D.C. is about as politically liberal a city as there is anywhere in the United States. President Barack Obama rolled up a 93 percent landslide win over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to garner D.C.’s three electoral votes last November. The District has never come close to going Republican since the 23rd Amendment gave its residents the right to vote in presidential elections beginning in 1964.
So if school vouchers are part of a right-wing plot to take down public education, as teacher union leaders often insinuate, this method of advancing school choice ought to be despised by the vast majority of D.C. residents.
To the contrary, the latest public opinion poll on the issue shows 74 percent of D.C.’s registered voters view favorably the federally funded program that provides vouchers of up to $7,500 to 1,700 needy children to enable them to attend private schools.
Moreover, nearly eight in 10 parents of school-age children in D.C. oppose ending the vouchers, which are officially called D.C. Opportunity Scholarships.
Over the past week, we have been reporting on the impressive support from DC parents and residents generally for this program. A bipartisan group of Senators, led by Senator Joe Lieberman, have now introduced a measure to save and expand the program because, as the Senator said,
“This is not a liberal program or a conservative program, but a program that puts children first.” “And I am proud to say that it’s working.”
And isn’t that what we should all be trying to do? Support programs that are working for our children? Education is not about Republican versus Democrat, conservative versus liberal, left coast versus east coast. It is about finding solutions for our children’s education- even when those solutions may upset the status quo.
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[...] efforts in other state, and especially our neighbors across the Potomac in DC. We’ve been reporting quite a bit recently about the ongoing battle to save the DC Opportunity Scholarships, and wanted to [...]