Students, Supporters Rally to Save Vouchers [D.C.]

WaPo ^ | Oct. 1, 2009 | Michael Bimbaum

[smokingfrog]

About a thousand parents, students and teachers gathered outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning in support of the D.C. school voucher program, which is up for reauthorization in Congress.

Chants of "put kids first" floated toward Senate office windows as students waved signs that said "School Choice Now" and "Save Our Scholarship."

"We're still here, and we're not going away!" said former education secretary Margaret Spellings, who spoke in front of the crowd along with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and others.

The federally funded voucher program provides scholarships to low-income District children to attend private schools. In the 2008-09 school year, it spent about $12 million on 1,716 students. This year the program will be slightly smaller because it was closed to new students in the spring, when its funding came in doubt.

[machogirl]

How can someone express great support, but want to end it? Why sentence these kids, through no fault of their own, to a bad education? NEA?

[machogirl]

Public Schools in my area (phx) addressed the competition by making some changes of their own. My school district saw the competition from the “back to basics” charter schools, so they started their own to compete. These are so successful they have at least 4/25 and one brand new Jr. High. In addition they have several alternative schools. There are quite a few Charter schools as well in the area and they all do a good job. If one doesn’t fit a child’s “learning style” the parents can go somewhere else. They are not “stuck” in a failing school.

[Carley]

Arne Duncan wants to do for America, and D.C. in particular, what he did for the Chicago school system.

Evidently there is no level of harm that O and his cabal won’t inflict on the innocent students.