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Townhall...
School Choice: A Real
Test Awaits
By Ed Feulner
Imagine you could buy a car at only one dealership. Shop for clothes at
only one outlet. Buy food at only one grocery store. What kind of
service would you expect?
Mediocre at best. Which isn’t surprising. We all know competition
promotes quality. When you can shop wherever you please, merchants know
the only way to woo your business is to offer a superior product.
So if the rule applies to cars, clothes and food -- and hundreds of
other things -- why shouldn’t it apply to our children’s education?
School choice promotes quality education through competition. Yet it’s
the exception, not the norm. We tolerate a situation where nearly all
but the most well-to-do parents must settle for the nearest public
school, regardless of quality.
Yes, many districts have fine schools, filled with caring teachers and
dedicated principals. Be grateful if you have such a school in your
neighborhood. Because many others, especially in low-income, urban
areas, can’t make that boast.
Regardless, we have to ask: Why does it have to be this way? Why should
a quality education for students who come from families of modest and
low-income means be a matter of chance? The luck of the draw?
That’s why it’s always encouraging to see efforts to promote school
choice -- to enable parents to select the school that’s right for their
children. One stellar example can be found here in the nation’s
capital: the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Founded in 2004,
DCOSP was the first federally funded school voucher program. It
provided low-income children with scholarships of up to $7,500 a year
to defray the cost of tuition and other fees at area private schools.
You may notice that I’m speaking of the program in the past tense.
That’s because President Obama, moving to appease his supporters in the
National Education Association, took steps to end the DCOSP shortly
after taking office. Never mind its popularity among families. Forget
the fact that the students awarded the scholarships had a 91 percent
graduation rate, versus a 70 percent graduation rate among those who
didn’t have access to them.
Its appeal cuts across the usual liberal/conservative line. The DCOSP
can count The Washington Post, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and
three former D.C. mayors -- Anthony Williams, Adrian Fenty and Marion
Barry -- among its supporters.
But despite its success and bi-partisan support, the Obama
administration stood by as the last Congress moved to phase-out the
DCOSP, dimming the hopes of the 1,100 children it served. The attitude
boiled down to: You have a school down the street. Sure, it may be
plagued by violence, drugs and uncaring teachers. It may even be
structurally unsound. But hey, that’s life, right?
Not necessarily. There’s an effort underway in Congress to restore the
program’s funding. House Speaker John Boehner is sponsoring the
Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act, designed to
reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It has already
passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and soon
will be up for a full floor vote.
Committee members heard from numerous parents and students testifying
in its favor. “This program has worked, is still working, and will
continue to work,” said Ronald Holassie, a high-school senior with an
OSP scholarship. “Now being a young adult, taking on my own
responsibilities, I have certainly been greatly influenced by this
program. I can look back and credit this program for my success.”
That’s really what school choice is about -- giving kids a chance to
learn in a safe environment with good teachers, so they can go on to
achieve that success. Some day, people will “look back” on how today’s
politicians responded to this crisis. What grade will they deserve?
Read it at Townhall
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