Heritage: Omnibus bill ends successful DC voucher program

[spursncowboys]

House Leaders Vote to End D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program
It’s turning out to be a lousy Christmas for D.C. children. Late last night, the House dealt a hefty blow to the future of school choice in the District of Columbia. House leadership passed an omnibus appropriations bill which includes language to phase-out the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships of up to $7,500 to low-income children to attend a private school of their choice. The omnibus prohibits any new students from receiving scholarships, phasing it out in the coming years. The omnibus now moves on to the Senate for consideration, and if passed, will effectively end the D.C. OSP – and the hopes of thousands of District children of receiving a better education.

Despite President Obama’s pledge to support “what works” in education, he and Secretary Arne Duncan have stood idly by as the future of the Opportunity Scholarship Program grows dimmer and dimmer. Lawmakers know the OSP works, D.C. residents know the OSP works, and families know the OSP works. Yet weeks continue to tick by as low-income D.C. children wait to hear the support of their President for their continued educational success.

Some members of Congress understand what’s at stake for District families. In a letter to Senator Richard Durbin and Representative José Serrano written on Monday, Minority Leader Boehner and Senator Joseph Lieberman others wrote:

This program has the overwhelming support of D.C. residents, parents, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Chancellor Michelle Rhee, former Mayor Anthony Williams, and the D.C. City Council….Five years after the first scholarship students walked into their new schools, we know that the program is helping them both academically and socially…Local D.C. officials and residents have been very clear – they want this program to continue…In fact, during his sworn testimony before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, Mayor Fenty stated that he supports adding new students to maintain the current cap.

As members contemplate the future of school choice this weekend, they should inform their decision by watching Let Me Rise: The Struggle to Save School Choice in the Nation’s Capital. Perhaps seeing the faces of the children and families so greatly impacted by the opportunity to receive a quality education will move them to support school choice in the District.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/12/11/house-leaders-vote-to-end-dc-opportunity-scholarship-program/

[ChumpDumper]

Why doesn't Heritage start their own scholarship program for those disadvantaged kids?

[Mr. Peabody]

According to the Department of Education, the program isn't working or improving academic performance. So, why all the outrage?



http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20074009/execsumm_impact.asp

The third-year report, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After One Year, contains the following key findings:

No evidence of a statistically significant difference in test scores between students who were offered an OSP scholarship and students who were not offered a scholarship.

The program had a consistently positive impact on parent satisfaction and their perceptions of school safety.

Students who were offered OSP scholarships did not report being more satisfied with school or feeling safer in school than those without access to scholarships.

This same pattern of findings holds when the analysis is conducted to determine the impact of using a scholarship rather than being offered a scholarship, taking into account the approximately 20 percent of students who were offered but chose not to use their scholarships the first year.

....

The main models indicate that the Program generated no statistically significant impacts, positive or negative, on student reading or math achievement for the entire impact sample in year 1. One of the three alternative specifications indicated a positive and statistically significant math impact of 3.4 scale score points.

No statistically significant achievement impacts were observed for the high-priority subgroup of students who had attended a SINI public school under NCLB before applying to the Program.

The Program may have had an impact on math achievement for two subgroups of students with baseline characteristics associated with better academic preparation. The main models suggest that the OSP improved the math achievement of participating students who had not attended a SINI school by 4.7 scale score points and increased the math scores of those with relatively higher test score performance at baseline by 4.3 scale score points. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution, as adjustments for multiple comparisons suggested they may be false discoveries.

No significant achievement impacts were observed for other subgroups of participating students, including those with lower test scores at baseline, girls, boys, elementary students, secondary students, or students within each of the individual cohorts that in combination made up the impact sample.

[Winehole23]

The basic emotional thrust of the OP is that at Christmastime the scroogelike Dems have deprived "high-priority subgroups" of marginal improvements in math, and the federal subsidy that enables it.

[Winehole23]

Wah.

[Winehole23]

OTOH, inasmuch as the program provides a ticket out of the public-school system Wino is on record calling for a speedy end to, and a modicum of choice to parents, in principle it is not all bad. After all, high-priority subgroups register marginal improvement in math.

If the Heritage Foundation argues in favor of a federal program, it couldn't possibly be bad, could it?

[EVAY]

I'm opposed to vouchers of any kind for any reason for public schols. Either fix public schools or don't, but the 'vouchers to send your kid elsewhere' program is ineffective as competition and, when used for attendance at religious schools, unconstitutional, IMO.

[Winehole23]

I can see that. It doesn't bother Wino personally, but I can see the objection.

If parochial school works better for some, why not be for that too?