Dems kill vouchers in D.C.

[jimmy olsen]

Fucking union
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598221889538680.html

'Duplicitous and Shameful'
Democrats vote to send poor kids to inferior schools

The waiting is finally over for some of the District of Columbia's most ambitious school children and their parents. Democrats in Congress voted to kill the District's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides 1,700 disadvantaged kids with vouchers worth up to $7,500 per year to attend a private school.

On Sunday the Senate approved a spending bill that phases out funding for the five-year-old program. Several prominent Senators this week sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid pleading for a reconsideration. Signed by Independent-Democrat Joe Lieberman, Democrats Robert Byrd and Dianne Feinstein, and Republicans Susan Collins and John Ensign, it asked to save a program that has "provided a lifeline to many low-income students in the District of Columbia." President Obama signed the bill Thursday.

The program's popularity has generated long waiting lists. A federal evaluation earlier this year said the mostly black and Hispanic participants are making significant academic gains and narrowing the achievement gap. But for the teachers unions, this just can't happen. The National Education Association instructed Democratic lawmakers to kill it.

"Opposition to vouchers is a top priority for NEA," declared the union in a letter sent to every Democrat in the House and Senate in March. "We expect that Members of Congress who support public education, and whom we have supported, will stand firm against any proposal to extend the pilot program. Actions associated with these issues WILL be included in the NEA Legislative Report Card for the 111th Congress."

Senator Dick Durbin, who heads the subcommittee that oversees funding, has been saying for the better part of a year that he's open to supporting the program's continuation if certain conditions were met. In retrospect, this looks like bad faith.

Earlier this year, Mr. Durbin said the local D.C. Council needed to sign off on the program before Congress could reauthorize it. The council did exactly that, sending Congress a letter expressing solid support for the scholarships. Senator Durbin then said he wants participating schools to administer the same exams to voucher students that D.C. public school students take. Done, said proponents.

The program's supporters now feel they've been had. "Durbin has engaged in that classic game of moving the goal posts," says Kevin Chavous, a former D.C. council member and one of many local Democratic leaders who back school vouchers. "He's just been less than honest. He's made promises to colleagues and school leaders—like Michelle Rhee, our schools Chancellor—saying, 'All I need is this.' But the reality is that they've been finding reasons not to support the program."

The voucher program is closed to new students. "It's duplicitous and shameful," says Mr. Chavous. Strong language. But if you're a kid in D.C. trying to escape its awful schools, maybe not strong enough.

[The Larch]

I don't really get it. What are vouchers exactly and that do they do? Are they some kind of educational grant?

[Faeelin]

Disappointing.

[Neil]

I don't really get it. What are vouchers exactly and that do they do? Are they some kind of educational grant?

They're like scholarships that allow students that show some merit to pay tuition to private schools, rather than going to gladiator academy in the black/latino-packed public schools.

[The Larch]

I don't really get it. What are vouchers exactly and that do they do? Are they some kind of educational grant?

They're like scholarships that allow students that show some merit to pay tuition to private schools, rather than going to gladiator academy in the black/latino-packed public schools.

Mmm, I think I get it. Who funds it, is it public in full or only in part?

Sounds awful on its philosophy, in the context of the whole educational framework, though.

[Neil]

I don't really get it. What are vouchers exactly and that do they do? Are they some kind of educational grant?

They're like scholarships that allow students that show some merit to pay tuition to private schools, rather than going to gladiator academy in the black/latino-packed public schools.

Mmm, I think I get it. Who funds it, is it public in full or only in part?

Sounds awful on its philosophy, in the context of the whole educational framework, though.

Publicly funded.

It's not really that bad.  Think of it like the German system, with the whole streaming thing and whatnot.  Besides, how is it fair to force kids that might have a chance to go to public school?

[The Larch]

Publicly funded.

It's not really that bad.  Think of it like the German system, with the whole streaming thing and whatnot.  Besides, how is it fair to force kids that might have a chance to go to public school?

The implication is that the public system is crap and for someone to have a chance they have to go private. From the system's perspective, it's terrible IMO.

[Neil]

Publicly funded.

It's not really that bad.  Think of it like the German system, with the whole streaming thing and whatnot.  Besides, how is it fair to force kids that might have a chance to go to public school?

The implication is that the public system is crap and for someone to have a chance they have to go private. From the system's perspective, it's terrible IMO.

Depending on where you live, that's the case.  Education is largely funded by local taxes.  For kids that live in neighborhoods full of blacks and latinos (and the crime that follows that scum around), their schools are not only terrible, but stand no chance of improving.  Ever.

[The Larch]

Publicly funded.

It's not really that bad.  Think of it like the German system, with the whole streaming thing and whatnot.  Besides, how is it fair to force kids that might have a chance to go to public school?

The implication is that the public system is crap and for someone to have a chance they have to go private. From the system's perspective, it's terrible IMO.

Depending on where you live, that's the case.  Education is largely funded by local taxes.  For kids that live in neighborhoods full of blacks and latinos (and the crime that follows that scum around), their schools are not only terrible, but stand no chance of improving.  Ever.

Schools are funded locally over there? That must be a huge problem for places with a small base, I'd say. Better to have them at least regionally funded, States have way more resources.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Publicly funded.

It's not really that bad.  Think of it like the German system, with the whole streaming thing and whatnot.  Besides, how is it fair to force kids that might have a chance to go to public school?

The implication is that the public system is crap and for someone to have a chance they have to go private. From the system's perspective, it's terrible IMO.

Depending on where you live, that's the case.  Education is largely funded by local taxes.  For kids that live in neighborhoods full of blacks and latinos (and the crime that follows that scum around), their schools are not only terrible, but stand no chance of improving.  Ever.

Schools are funded locally over there? That must be a huge problem for places with a small base, I'd say. Better to have them at least regionally funded, States have way more resources.

Been an argument about that forever.  For afluent areas there is no incentive to change.  They're doing just fine and don't want to see their kids suffer by sending tax money elsewhere.

[Neil]

Schools are funded locally over there? That must be a huge problem for places with a small base, I'd say. Better to have them at least regionally funded, States have way more resources.

It's an artifact of how the American school system was built.

[The Larch]

Schools are funded locally over there? That must be a huge problem for places with a small base, I'd say. Better to have them at least regionally funded, States have way more resources.

It's an artifact of how the American school system was built.

Sounds terrible. Hasn't there been enough time to reform that?

@ DW: But can't things be worked on a different way? Even if affluent areas have no incentive to change it, you'd think that there's way more people interested in it changing. Who'd resist such a reform?

[Admiral Yi]

FYI DC spends much, much more per student in the public school system than any state in the US.

[Fate]

How does it compare to other metro areas though?

[Valmy]

Sounds terrible. Hasn't there been enough time to reform that?

@ DW: But can't things be worked on a different way? Even if affluent areas have no incentive to change it, you'd think that there's way more people interested in it changing. Who'd resist such a reform?

It is hardly a national system Larch it varies.  In Texas we have the "robin hood" scheme where we make the rich districts share with the poorer ones.

I am not sure if it is working but it sure drives the property taxes sky high in the rich areas in an attempt to keep the schools good.

Besides I am pretty sure DC has only a singular school system so this problem would not exist there.  In that city the rich people send their kids to private school.

Finally the reason the funding works the way it does is because the schools are controlled, and thus funded locally.  To reform that would take the power from the local community and put it in the hands of the State or Federal government and that would be unacceptable to alot of people.