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School Choice DC

The Washington, DC Opportunity Scholarship Program has allowed 2,000 children to opt out of inadequate neighborhood schools and choose private schools that afford them better educational options. 

Children in the Nation's Capital - which has the highest child poverty rate in the country - need, and are succeeding with, that educational choice. But lawmakers are moving to shut the program down and shut them out.

Learn More. Take Action. Make a Difference.

Join the Chorus: Write your elected officials to let them know you're watching how they vote on behalf of DC school children.

Find out more at Save Opportunity and Put Kids First.
Join the conversation at edspresso.

One Small Program for Kids, One Big Step for Mankind
A small D.C. program increases reading scores for the poorest children in Washington, ensures safety and increases parental satisfaction and thus their involvement in their child's education.Get udpates at In Focus: School Choice DC.

Expansions of State Voucher Programs Gain Momentum
The Obama administration and key Democrats in Congress are planning to let the 5-year-old D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program sunset over the next few years. President Barack Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request proposes $9 million for the voucher program, but specifies that it will be the "final request" for federal money. Get udpates at In Focus: School Choice DC.

Attrition & Subtraction
In a city where public schools graduate 70 percent of students (a 20 percent increase from 2006), where students have some of the worst scores in the country, and the government spends the third-most per pupil of any state in the country, the federal government is ending one small program that has raised student reading scores and parent satisfaction in its five-year existence. Get udpates at In Focus: School Choice DC.

Barbara Hollingsworth: Where is the Outrage over Scholarship Programs Demise
Former D.C. Council member Kevin Chavous and Juan Williams of Fox News and National Public Radio passionately defended the endangered $13 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program at a press conference last week. Get udpates at In Focus: School Choice DC.

Williams for Choice
"Just because the NEA [National Education Association] and AFT [American Federation of Teachers] says we should not have this program and we're going to end it - then shame on all of us," said former D.C. City Council member and Education Committee Chairman Kevin Chavous, who has appeared in local television advertisements drawing attention to this issue.