Change 1,900 D.C. Kids Believe In

Conn Carroll / June 17, 2008

Today a House Appropriations subcommittee will vote on the annual District of Columbia appropriations bill. If Del. Elanor Holmes Norton has her way, the majority liberal panel will kill 1,900 scholarships for Washington, D.C., school children.

These children will then be forced back into one of the worst public school systems in the country. Meanwhile, the Department of Education released a study on D.C.’s scholarship program showing positive initial results from the program’s first 19 months of existence. From a summary of the study:

Reading achievement improved for three large subgroups of students, comprising 88 percent of participating students. In fact, their gains put them about two to four months ahead of their peers who did not receive a scholarship. …

The positive effects found in this year’s report are larger than those in last year’s report, and whenever statistically significant effects were found, they favored students who were offered scholarships.

Looking at the study, the Washington Post editorializes: “Though not conclusive, promising new data are reason enough to keep D.C.’s vouchers program going.” The Post continues: “Lost in the rhetoric about the politics of the program is the simple fact that, if not for these vouchers, 86 percent of these 1,900 children would be attending failing D.C. schools.”

See these children and their parents talk about the importance of these scholarships at Voices of School Choice.