Earlier this year, Congress passed the first federally-funded private school voucher program in history. Under the $14-million plan, students in the District of Columbia could apply for $7,500-vouchers to pay for tuition at religious and other private schools.
Proponents of the plan rolled out the usual arguments: inner-city parents are desperately clamoring for these vouchers and the program will benefit students in under-performing public schools.
It turns out they were 0-for-2.
The D.C. voucher program did not receive enough applicants from public schools to fill all the slots available, and some of the children who will receive the federally funded tuition grants already attend private school, officials said yesterday.
In fact, on that second point, of the 1,200 vouchers that will be used this upcoming school year, about 200 will subsidize private school tuition for students who were already in private schools. There goes yet another voucher talking point down the drain.
Congress set aside funding for 1,600 voucher students for 2004-05. Parents in DC just don’t want them. So this is an opportunity, right? With the extra, unused money, maybe Congress could boost funding for DC’s public schools, some of which are literally falling apart at the seams?
Of course not. The unused money will go to pay for more vouchers.
[Sally J. Sachar, president of the Washington Scholarship Fund, which is running the voucher program] said no more than about two-thirds of the available voucher money will be distributed this year, with the rest being rolled over to 2005-06. She estimated that 500 to 900 additional slots for voucher students will be available next year.
When told yesterday how many private school students would be participating in the first year, voucher opponents criticized the allocation of the money.
“It’s outrageous,” said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way. “Federal dollars that could be used and should be used to improve struggling public schools are now being used to subsidize the education of children already in private schools.”
And DC public officials, including city council member Adrian M. Fenty (D), wondered aloud about how voucher proponents could have gotten this so wrong.
“It very clearly says there is not a lot of support for vouchers,” said Fenty, who opposed the bill. “Where is the rush? Where is the onslaught of people who were supposed to come out and take part in this process?”