Democrats Kill DC Voucher Program
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 12:06PM 
(FLP Opinion) - Once a federal government program is started it is extremely difficult to end it. Last week though, Democrats in Congress quietly ended a highly popular program to provide scholarship vouchers to hundreds of Washington, DC school children, allowing them to escape the cities long tarnished schools.
Roughly 1,700 low-income kids have attended private schools under the program and their test results have shown considerable improvement. Parents, the Mayor and the head of the cities schools all supported the program. But the teachers unions, who have seemingly endless pull with Congressional Democrats, didn't like it. In fact, they argued that such voucher programs take money away from public schools that desperately need it.
But this program was federally funded and cost the DC school system absolutely nothing. In fact, you could make a strong argument that it actually saved money because it sent hundreds of students elsewhere.
The real reason the program was axed seems to be that it actually worked and thereby threatened the monopoly that public schools and their unions enjoyed. So language to kill the program was quietly inserted in that massive trillion dollar spending bill passed last weekend.
No one in Congress is claiming credit for ending the program, but Senator Dick Durbin, with broad consensus from fellow Democrats, appears to have led the charge to kill it.
Final score: Teachers Unions 1 - Low-Income Kids 0.
Reader Comments (5)
Just more shameless behavior from the party of shame. How blacks can support these scumbags is beyond me. They've sold them out for decades.
Agreed, JoPa. It never ceases to amaze me how blindly loyal to one party blacks are. You'd think after 45 years in the weeds they'd give the other guys a shot.
This is really a sad story. What a bunch of heartless, liberal pigs.
Once again......the NEA, liberals, Democrats, and the President reveal that preservation of their power and privelege is their top priority. While they drone on ceaselessly about their passionate advocacy for poor, inner city children and spout off about the importance of education, something that actually gets results must be hidden away and kept quiet when it conflicts with their agenda. Never mind that it actually works, provides hope, and proves that anyone can climb the ladder and be successful in this country regardless of their lot in life. They don't want that to flourish, they can't have that kind of independence. Shame on these heartless hypocrites for taking away hope and opportunity from these innocent, powerless children. Shame on you Barack Obama, shame on you Dick Durbin, and shame on the NEA.
You guys are over reacting! The Demowits only support programs that don't work. Heaven forbid we bring a few African Americans out of the hood.
A few more tid bits of info. I found out after reading this story. The voucher program provided parents with a $7,500 tax credit to send their children to their choice of private schools. Guess how much money DC spends on each child per year? 13k, which makes perfect since because anytime you involve the government you need to add a minimum of 30% for waste, and a bunch of lazy bureaucrats. So, lets do some quick math. The DC schools spent nothing on this program because it was sponsored by the Feds, it cost the Fed. around 15 mil. Now, since the program won't be moving forward it looks like the DC schools are going to have to come up with an extra 25 mil., now we are making since from a Demowit perspective. Let us delete a program that is successful and changing the lives of many minorities living in poverty, and poor more money in a system that has been established not to work for over 60 years. Now your talking Demowit.
Now, let's talk about Jesus (Obama). I challenge the Obama's to enroll their daughters into DC's finest public schoosl. He is forcing over 1,900 children to go back to the fine public schools of DC. Are they not good enough for the Obama children? I mean, Obama seems like the type of leader that would lead by example, right. I put it you President Bull Shitter, you should let your daughters follow the same dream your enslaving upon these 1900 poor minorities children you claim to care so much about.