Budget 2011: Freezing Opportunity – New Budget Means the End of School Choice for Many
Sarah Torre /
The president’s proposed FY2011 budget increases funding to the Department of Education by $3.5 billion. But despite this significant increase, his budget effectively cuts the freedom of choice and educational opportunities from the lives of children living in the District of Columbia. What began last year as a low-profile attempt to quietly phase out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has become a noticeable agenda of denying school choice to District families. Representative John Boehner wrote about the administration’s decision today:
“President Obama’s job-killing budget does away with school choice in the nation’s capital. Even with all the profligacy that the FY 2011 budget represents, the President still finds room to kill one of the most successful and important programs enacted by Congress: the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program. Based on current program participation rates and the amount of available program funding carried forward from prior fiscal years, the President assumes that this will be the final request for federal funding to support the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The President is calling for this program’s termination despite the fact that the Department of Education is getting another massive injection of taxpayer money. In other words, the Administration is boosting funding for underachieving public schools in DC, while at the same time terminating funding for the successful DC school choice program.”