DC Scholarships Might Survive

Left for dead earlier this year, Washington D.C.’s parental choice program is benefiting from something the politicians who created it never counted on – a constituency.

Who would have guessed it, right?

On the recommendation of President Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress voted in March not to fund the limited, means-tested program, which gives scholarships of up to $7,500 a year to fewer than 2,000 low-income students from the District of Columbia’s worst schools.

That decision prompted an outcry from the hundreds of low-income parents whose children were benefiting from the program, however.  In May, Obama attempted to strike a compromise with these parents by agreeing to permit students already using the scholarships to continue receiving them – thus removing the most vocal opponents to his “shutdown” plan, right?

Wrong …

From the Wall Street Journal:

The District of Columbia’s embattled school-voucher program, which lawmakers appeared to have killed earlier this year, looks like it could still survive …

… after months of pro-voucher rallies, a television-advertising campaign and statements of support by local political leaders, backers say they are more confident about its prospects. Even some Democrats, many of whom have opposed voucher efforts, have been supportive.

At a congressional hearing last month, Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and vocal critic of the program who heads the subcommittee that controls its funding, said he was open to supporting its continuation if certain changes were made.

FITS readers will recall that it was Obama’s decision to abandon the Washington D.C. school choice program that prompted USA Today to reverse its previous position and endorse parental choice.

Anyway, the Obama administration was clearly not counting on a bunch of poor, black parents in Washington D.C. effectively rallying around a program that they believe in – and want to see expand.

That’s the whole point behind setting up these limited parental choice programs … if you limit the choices, you limited the number of people who have a vested interest in fighting for them.

Narrow programs = narrow constituencies.

Fortunately, those low-income, minority parents in Washington have turned out to be an unexpectedly strong constituency, even after Obama thought he’d bought them off.

UPDATE: Swing down, sweet chariot stop and … (click here)

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