Few legislators have done more to advance school choice than Kevin Chavous. As a city councilmember in Washington D.C. from 1992 to 2004, and a chairman of the council’s Education Committee, Chavous was instrumental in implementing the city’s landmark Opportunity Scholarship Program. A partnership between the federal and city governments, the DC OSP was one of the first and most successful school choice programs in the country. Students received vouchers for $7,500 for tuition at some of the city’s top private and charter schools. Many schools took it upon themselves …
Joseph Kelley knew something was wrong when his son Rashawn flunked first grade. “I knew he knew his alphabet forward and backward, he knew how to count to 100 forward and backward,” Kelley said. He had taught Rashawn these things himself. Rashawn’s teachers were surprised to find out that he knew how to read; they hadn’t noticed. At the time, Rashawn was attending a public school in Washington, D.C. Kelley decided to sit in on his son’s classes to learn the teachers’ vocabulary and techniques so he could tutor Rashawn …
Friday night, Speaker John Boehner secured a huge win for D.C.’s schoolchildren. In a vital triumph for low-income families in the nation’s capital, Speaker Boehner succeeded in reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in the long-term continuing resolution. Over at National Review Online, Kathryn Lopez writes that “John Boehner just walked Barack Obama into being a civil-rights leader.” For the past two years, low-income families in D.C. have been fighting to regain access to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program after it was placed on life support by Senator Richard Durbin. …
In a sweeping victory for school choice, a bill to reauthorize and expand the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) passed in the U.S. House last Wednesday. During what turned out to be an at times intense debate on the House floor prior to the vote, legislators spoke passionately about the DCOSP. Unfortunately, some Democrats who stood in opposition to the program didn’t seem to get their facts straight. For example, Representative George Miller (D–CA) proclaimed: “There are a number of concerns about this [DCOSP] bill. First, and most importantly, …
The budget battle has yet to be worked out. Does a government shutdown loom? Also, gas prices are on the rise. So why is President Obama proposing reductions of oil imports by one third? And, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program was effectively ended by the left, but legislation to refund it is passing through Congress. One eighth-grade girl testifies before Congress on how this program has benefited her. Will this program survive Congress, and the president? Listen to our latest Heritage in Focus Roundtable, for answers to these questions and more.
Today, a bill that would restore and expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP)—the flagship school choice program for low-income schoolchildren in the nation’s capital—will hit the House floor for a vote. Despite the program’s track record of success and the overwhelming support from parents and D.C. residents, the program has been under attack since the Obama Administration came to town in 2009. And even as the bill, sponsored by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), comes up for a vote today, the Administration continues to argue against the …
I’ve spent most of my life working to advance school choice — to give all parents the power to decide where their children go to school. Most Americans support this idea, but in reality only those parents with the financial means can decide where to send their kids to school, leaving many underprivileged families forced to send their kids to consistently failing public schools. Many of these struggling families live in the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C., is home to some of the most troubled public schools in the country. Today …
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is out with a new video that highlights the significance of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides low-income students with a scholarship to attend a private school. Today the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the SOAR Act, which restores funding that President Obama and Democrats eliminated. Boehner’s video highlights the congressional testimony of Lesly Alvarez, an eight-grade student who is benefiting from a scholarship at Sacred Heart School. Lesly shared her story about the program before the House Oversight and …
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) has made some pretty absurd comments over the years. Most notably, perhaps, was her quip that “we have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what is in it.” But comments sent out in a press release yesterday rival that condescending statement. In a release concerning House Speaker John Boehner’s (R–OH) efforts to repeal Obamacare, Pelosi added: Speaker Boehner plans to bring to the floor his own legislation that moves to privatize public education in the District of Columbia. … …
Perhaps the biggest implication of our country’s growing Hispanic population, as recently confirmed by the US Census Bureau, is its impact on our public school system. With Hispanic children comprising more of our enrolled public school student-body, but comprising a growing number of our high school drop outs, it’s clear that we are facing the prospect of a largely uneducated workforce in the near future. In this light, it’s clear why the President would want to address education policy, specifically as it relates to the Hispanic population, in front of …
