Obama proposal seen as beginning of end for school voucher program

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Obama proposal seen as beginning of end for school voucher program

WASHINGTON (CNS) — President Barack Obama’s May 6 budget proposal to allow 1,700 poor children in the District of Columbia to keep their federally funded scholarships but bar any more students from entering the program means a slow death for an initiative that works, said a Washington archdiocesan official.

“This proposal might help children who are now in the program,” said Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill, superintendent for schools. “But what about the many other children in the city who will never have this opportunity?”

She was referring to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a federally-funded voucher program launched as a pilot program five years ago that has to be reauthorized by Congress.

It allocates $14 million annually in individual scholarships of up to $7,500 to 1,700 children from low-income families, which allows them to attend private schools in the District of Columbia. About half of the scholarship recipients attend Catholic schools.

The announcement of the president’s proposal came the same day that nearly 2,000 students, parents and other community members converged on Freedom Plaza in Washington for a rally to urge elected officials to keep the program intact.