DC SCHOOL VOUCHER PLAN WOULD BE LARGEST EVER

NCPA Daily Policy Digest ^ | May 6, 2003 | Greg Toppo

[bruinbirdman]

Low-income students in Washington, D.C., could get as much as $11,000 apiece in private-school tuition under a plan proposed by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). The D.C. plan dwarfs other tax- supported vouchers available to students elsewhere.

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, a Democrat, last week spoke out for the first time in support of voucher. Observers say this is a dramatic change in course and an indication that the city is willing to try the experiment for some of its 67,000 students.

Under the plan:

o Vouchers would be available to students whose families earn less than $52,000 for a family of four.

o Vouchers would be limited by private-school tuition, so that if a student attended a Catholic school that costs $4,000 a year, he or she would get only $4,000.

o A student attending a prep school costing $20,000 would still get only $11,000.

Legislative analysts say the D.C. program next year could sustain up to 2,000 students receiving vouchers of about $3,000 to $4,000, roughly the tuition at many religious schools. It would be built around a lottery, meaning that if many students used the full voucher, fewer students could take part.

The D.C. proposal would still be out of reach for most of the city's 67,000 students, says Marc Egan of the National School Boards Association. Local private schools have only about 1,200 slots available, he says.

Source: Greg Toppo, "D.C. voucher plan would far exceed others in USA," USA TODAY, May 6, 2003.

For more on School Choice

[cyborg]

YES!!!!!! Anyone who doubts the effects of putting smart-yet-poor kids into schools where they excel ought to rent
"Finding Forrester".

Fear and trembling must be moving through the NEA/UFT hallways...

Randy Weingarden must be peeing her pants...

[Tijeras_Slim]

This is good.

Personally, I think being raised by wolves would have a better outcome than going through the DC schools.

[aristeides]

I wonder if Mayor Williams did his 180 because of the scandals in the D.C. teachers' union (which, among other things, caused the problems with Williams's reelection petitions last year.)

[The Other Harry]

If this passes, the camel's nose will definitely be under the tent wall. It's about time.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

NEA, watch and learn (if you can.)

[Tacis]

Has to be the dumbest thing ever conceived. First, private school tuition will tend to rise to the voucher limits, just as Pell grants have established a rising floor of college tuition. Then, DC students will go to Virginia and Maryland, leaving the dregs of the dregs in the public schools. But, the public schools will still have to exist so total costs will not drop but rise rapidly. Finally, new private school seats will come onto the market, teaching black self-esteem and ebonics, etc., so the over all level of education will not improve over the long run.

The solution is now and always has been, to fix the public school system even if it means destroying the evil teachers' unions. Alas, private school vouchers will eventually mean that private schools (many of the, at least) will be unionized and we'll be back where we are with another 25 years worth of very badly educated inner city kids.

[madprof98]

The solution is now and always has been, to fix the public school system even if it means destroying the evil teachers' unions.

Some things can't be fixed. The Atlanta Public Schools are a good example. They cost more and more, and they produce less and less every year. For ours (and many other urban systems, I think) the DC schools represent something of an ideal: minimum competence at maximum cost. I see a tiny bit of hope in the charter school movement, but I am sending my latest child to a private religious school, and I think everyone else should have that option.

[RobbyS]

The solution is now and always has been, to fix the public school system even if it means destroying the evil teachers' unions. Alas, private school vouchers will eventually mean that private schools (many of the, at least) will be unionized and we'll be back where we are with another 25 years worth of very badly educated inner city kids. By your own logic, the public schools cannot be fixed.

[grapeape]

This will end up being the finest example of government and the private sector ever implemented.

I know these kids can achieve greatness! I have seen it with my own eyes. This program will also be the end to the domonance of the democratic party in the black community.