Protesting parents ignored by the media.
President Obamas speech to students this week got plenty of attention and many conservatives looked foolish by fretting about indoctrination. They would have done far more good joining those who protested on Tuesday against the Presidents decision to shut down a school voucher program for 1700 low-income kids in Washington D.C.
Its fundamentally wrong for this Administration not to listen to the voices of citizens in this city said Kevin Chavous the former D.C. Council member who organized the protest of parents and kids ignored by most media. Mr. Chavous a Democrat is upset that the White House and Democrats in Congress have conspired to shut down the program even though the governments own evaluation demonstrates improved test scores.
The nationwide black/white achievement gap has grown in recent years and its significantly wider than it was two decades ago. Yet the Obama Administration in deference to teachers unions that oppose school choice is shuttering a voucher program that is narrowing the racial learning gap.
The D.C. voucher program has proven to be the most effective education policy evaluated by the federal governments official education research arm so far writes the Education Departments chief evaluator Patrick Wolf in the current issue of Education Next. On average participating low-income students are performing better in reading because the federal government decided to launch an experimental school choice program in our nations capital.
Democrats had pledged that if the D.C. Council supported the voucher program theyd revisit it. The government of Washington D.C. should decide whether they want the voucher program in their school district declared Illinois Senator Dick Durbin who sponsored the provision to kill the program. Well a majority of the D.C. Council has since sent lawmakers a letter expressing support. Yet Democrats are still preventing Congress from living up to its end of the deal and voting to restore funding. Meanwhile Mr. Obama sends his own daughters to the best private school in the District.
