Washington Post: Obama Should Support D.C. School Choice
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 9.16am in Education.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post editorial page continued its support of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program—comparing President-elect Obama’s position on school vouchers with his family’s experience of choosing a school in the nation’s capital:
Let’s hope the experience of moving his girls and finding the place where they will flourish resonates with Mr. Obama so that he reexamines his stance on the District’s voucher program. How is it right to take away what little choice there is for needy D.C. children? The scholarship program wasn’t intended to replace Washington’s public schools, and it doesn’t lessen the urgency of improving them. But it does give some poor parents an opportunity taken for granted by better-off families, who can pick their residency based on school district even if they can’t afford the most elite private schools.
We join the Post in hoping that this experience leads the President-elect to have a change of heart on school choice. If not, he won’t be the only elected official in D.C. to choose private school for his own children while opposing offering the same benefit to other family’s kids. Heritage’s 2007 survey found that 37 percent of Representatives and 45 percent of Senators responded that they had sent children to private school. Yet many of the same members have voted to deny disadvantaged families the power to choose the best school for their children.
- Author: Dan Lips
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November 18, 2008 Spiritof76, New Hampshire writes:
Isn’t that type of behavior called hypocrisy? I thought spending so much time as a community organizer in the poor neighborhoods of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Obama would have rushed to enroll their children in the great public school system of DC. Per pupil expenditure rivals a private school while the drop out rates climbing to astronomical heights. Mr. Obama is fast to comment on the BCS football tournament but avoids making a comment about the pitiful condition of the DC school system, relevant considering his wife arrived in DC ahead of him to meet with President Bush explicitly to review the private schools there.
Provide vouchers to the parents so that poor parents can also be empowered to pick the schools they want their children to attend. Standing in the way is the Teachers Union, generous contributors to the Democrats including Obama. So, poor people are being sacrificed and they don’t seems to suspect it.