Last week Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), along with co-sponsors Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Robert Byrd (D-WV), and George Voinovich (R-OH) filed an amendment to the tax extenders bill to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is currently being phased-out by Congress and the Obama administration. The amendment however, was blocked by Senator Reid, despite the Nevada Senator having pledged over the summer of 2009 to give Lieberman’s reauthorization measure floor time. Lieberman is continuing to push for an opportunity to have his amendment considered. The next …
President Barack Obama is touring the country asking for an up-or-down vote on his health care plan. Forget for a second that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) can schedule an up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill any time she wants, and keep in mind that while Democrats are trying to create the legislative text for President Obama’s “new” health care proposal, Senate Democrats are also pushing to include student lending provisions in the reconciliation bill. What does student lending have to do with health care you might ask? Nothing. …
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has filed an amendment to a tax extenders bill expected to be considered by the Senate today. The amendment would reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and, according to a press release from D.C. Parents for School Choice, would “preserve the program for current and future students”. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are co-sponsors. As Virginia Walden Ford and I wrote last week in a post on The Corner, school …
School districts and legislatures in Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Virginia are demonstrating a commitment to greater educational opportunities for students and families by challenging the status quo of mediocre and failing public schools. While many East Coast states spent the weekend focused on snow removal, the town of Central Falls, Rhode Island focused on the removal of almost 100 teachers from one of the state’s worst performing schools. Superintendent Frances Gallo will fire all Central Falls High School teachers after union leaders refused proposed reforms that included increasing the …
The president’s proposed FY2011 budget increases funding to the Department of Education by $3.5 billion. But despite this significant increase, his budget effectively cuts the freedom of choice and educational opportunities from the lives of children living in the District of Columbia. What began last year as a low-profile attempt to quietly phase out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has become a noticeable agenda of denying school choice to District families. Representative John Boehner wrote about the administration’s decision today: “President Obama’s job-killing budget does away with school choice in …
Regular readers of the Foundry are probably aware that the federal government’s school voucher program in the nation’s capital, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, is benefiting students by improving school safety and providing higher academic achievement. We thought you’d probably like to know that they’re finding the same trends in Milwaukee, home to the nation’s longest-standing urban school voucher program. A recent report from School Choice Wisconsin presented an analysis of the number of calls made to 911 from schools in Milwaukee, similar to a Heritage analysis from last summer …
Last night, one of the coveted seats in the First Lady’s Box was occupied by Clay Armstrong, a recent graduate of Ballou High School, part of the D.C. public school system. The Washington Post reports: Armstrong does not shy away from describing his life at Ballou as difficult, stressful and disadvantaged. ‘It was tough, but I handled it pretty well,’ he says. ‘There were fights every day and people have gotten stabbed. People have gotten shot. There’s constantly people being knuckleheads and trying to be the class clown.’ Fortunately, as …
After some prodding, yesterday the Obama administration released the long-overdue first grade evaluation of the federal Head Start program. As expected, the results show that the $7 billion per year program provides little benefit to children – and great expense to taxpayers. The evaluation, which was mandated by Congress during the 1998 reauthorization of the program, found little impact on student well-being. After collecting data on more than 5,000 three and four-year-old children randomly assigned to either a Head Start or a non Head Start control group, the Department of …
In today’s Washington Examiner, Barbara Hollingsworth writes about the injustice being committed to D.C. children by ending the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Hollingsworth’s impassioned words get at the heart of the crisis: It’s virtually impossible to get rid of federal programs that don’t work, so it’s even more astounding that a successful education program for low-income African American children is being phased-out by Democrats on Capitol Hill. Without, I might add, a peep of protest from President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Revs. Jesse Jackson …
Proponents of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program and families currently in the program have reason to be frustrated over Congress setting the course toward its elimination. But as Amanda Carpenter reports in today’s Washington Times, they’ve also found a “strong ally” in the fight for school choice – Juan Williams of Fox News: Mr. Williams, who is also senior national correspondent for National Public Radio, hosted an event at the National Press Club on Friday to promote a short film produced by the think tank about the recent decision to …
