Congress recently approved the country's first federally-funded school voucher program, giving money to 1,300 D.C. children from low-income families, who live in underachieving and failing school districts, to attend private or parochial schools.
These "opportunity scholarships," would provide grants of up to $7,500 to each student, for a total allocation of $10 million in next year's budget, according to the bill.
It's a new approach for District public schools, which are among the worst in the nation, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Six percent of D.C.'s eighth-graders have basic math skills, and 12 percent are proficient in reading, according to the assessment. These reading scores are only higher than Guam, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
Opportunity scholarships are part of a plan proposed by Mayor Anthony Williams, D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7) and D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Calfritz, which would provide money for traditional public and charter schools in addition to the vouchers.
"We are not advocating a national voucher policy," Calfritz, Chavous and Williams said in a Sept. 3 editorial in The Washington Post. "We, as local leaders, just want Congress to embrace our efforts to help our long neglected student population with every available tool."
State-funded programs have taken place in several states, including Wisconsin, New York and Florida, but the results of these programs are widely debated.
Advocates of vouchers claim these programs were widely effective, citing improved reading and math skills, as well as student and parent approval. Proponents argue the data was not collected properly, and the results may be skewed.
Kathryn Vacca, a representative of Facilitating Leadership in Youth, an organization where many AU students work with tutoring District children through the D.C. Reads program, feels not only are vouchers a quick fix, but also a way of abandoning the community.
"I want the kids to have the best options available, but if we're talking long term I think vouchers are harmful," Vacca said. "I want them to have a good public school in their community, not to have to go to someone else's school to get a good education."
Some also say that this voucher experiment is risky and diverts funds from improvements such as smaller class sizes in public schools.
Other voucher opponents, such as the American Federation of Teachers, say they take funds away from public schools and give them to private or parochial schools, which may be exclusive and are not bound by the same standards public schools are.
