Serrano’s Indefensible Anti-Scholarship Position

Lindsey Burke / November 30, 2009

As the fight to save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program heats up, Rep. Jose Serrano, Chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that regulates appropriations to the District of Columbia, is attempting to justify his opposition to the successful scholarships. In a Washington Post oped last week, Serrano writes:

“When I assumed the chairmanship of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees federal payments to the District, I announced that I was not interested in being a second mayor. Toward that end, I have worked to minimize Congress’s interference in D.C. affairs by steadily removing harmful, intrusive social policy directives from annual spending bills. But unfortunately, time and again one issue has dragged me into that unwanted ‘mayoral’ role: school vouchers.”

If Serrano is concerned about the existence of “harmful, intrusive social policy directives,” there are indeed many ineffective federal programs that should worry him. However, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program is not one of them. Serrano is trying to end a program that works – scholarships that are providing a lifeline out of underperforming and unsafe D.C. public schools for low-income children. (more…)