School Choice in D.C. Isn’t About Politics, It’s About the Kids
Rep. Joe Walsh /
I’ve spent most of my life working to advance school choice — to give all parents the power to decide where their children go to school. Most Americans support this idea, but in reality only those parents with the financial means can decide where to send their kids to school, leaving many underprivileged families forced to send their kids to consistently failing public schools. Many of these struggling families live in the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C., is home to some of the most troubled public schools in the country.
Today the House of Representatives will vote on a bill to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program — a program that provides low-income students with “expanded opportunities to attend higher performing schools in the District of Columbia.” Under pressure from special interest groups and the teachers unions, OSP was defunded in 2009 by the Obama administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress, despite the overwhelming evidence of its academic success.