School Choice in the States -- District of Columbia

SCHOOL CHOICE IN THE STATES

FOCUS ON:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Washington, DC parents are demanding choices -- the waiting lists of charter schools are long; every August parents wait in line for limited choices in public schools; and limited scholarships help all too few children. City and federal officials appear to be ready to step up to the plate for DC school choice.

UPDATES:

CER PRESIDENT JEANNE ALLEN TALKS ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE FOR DC ON THE DIANE REHM SHOW: Listen here to the panel discussion on the US Congress's progress toward a federally funded voucher program for DC students. September 29, 2003. (Link to Real Audio File.)

SENATORS CONSIDERING COMPROMISE ON VOUCHERS: GOP Backers Open 11th-Hour Talks With Democrats on D.C. Plan:
"The very freedom private schools have is what makes them more successful than their counterparts here in the District..... It's more bureaucracy, more paperwork, and once you give any education system license to control a private institution, they will take it and run." -- CER President Jeanne Allen
Link to full Washington Post article by Spencer S. Hsu, September 25, 2003

LET WASHINGTON STUDENTS TEST WHETHER VOUCHERS WORK: "In spite of years of reform efforts, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on improvements and the efforts of a Rolodex full of education consultants, the 68,449 public school students in the nation's capital remain ill-served by their school system. Washington spends a lavish $12,000 a year per student, a third higher than the national average. Yet ... Seven in 10 fourth-graders lacked basic reading skills, and three in four couldn't do basic math." Editorial, USA Today, September 24, 2003.

EXPANDED SCHOOL CHOICE FOR D.C. CHILDREN CLOSER AFTER HOUSE VOTE: The full House of Representatives brought the promise of better educational opportunities to the school children of the District of Columbia by passing an amendment that provides low-income parents residing in the District of Columbia with expanded opportunities for enrolling their children in the school of their choice. UPDATE, September 9, 2003: In a parliamentary procedure that put the Davis Amendment up for revote, the amendment was again approved by the full House of Representatives, as was the appropriations bill to fund it. The vote moves next to the Senate where a similar endorsement is expected.

CHOICE WORDS: "The debate over vouchers isn't about who is on what side, but about power. Shift the power to the people, and as we've seen demonstrated time and time again from Washington, D.C. to Milwaukee and in between, parents will make good choices." -- CER President Jeanne Allen. Link here to the full Washington Post debate on vouchers.

WASHINGTON'S CHILDREN DESERVE MORE CHOICES: DC Mayor Anthony A. Williams, D.C. Council education committee chairman Kevin P. Chavous, and D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz endorse the federal voucher program for DC's students. Read the full Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post, September 3, 2003. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has also come out in support of the $13 million school voucher plan for the District. Click here for Washington Post coverage.

DC REFORM FAST FACTS: The effort to expand educational opportunities for children in The District of Columbia is fast moving through the Congress. What does this child-centered plan do, and how would it work? CER clears up the confusion, dispels

$10 MILLION FOR DC SCHOOL CHOICE APPROVED BY HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE; Recent NAEP Scores Find District Public School Children Continue To Rank At Bottom, CER Press Release, July 16, 2003

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The members of the House Government Reform committee have voted to bring expanded school choices to the thousands of District of Columbia school children, to the tune of $15 million in choice scholarships. The matter will now go before the full House. Additionally, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are considering complimentary bills addressing funding scholarships, charter schools and traditional public schools. More details in CER Newswire July 15, 2003.

DC PLAN: President Bush made an historic announcement today about school choice, announcing a $75 million choice incentive fund and offering $15 million to the District of Columbia to expand choices to parents who want to choose private schools and reverse the low test scores that exist in the Nation's Capital. More details in CER Newswire July 1, 2003 and CER Press Release.

NOW HEAR THIS: The congressional committee in charge of changes in the Nation's Capital will hear testimony from local and national leaders today over a bill that would provide $15 million in choice scholarships to the city's most disadvantaged children, while ensuring that both public and charter school efforts receive additional school improvement funds. For more see CER Newswire June 24, 2003.

LEAD ON: District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams has come out strongly in support of an education system for the District that embraces a wide array of learning opportunities. In so doing he recognizes that there's no one size fits all school system that meets the needs of all children: " This is about helping all of our children wherever they go to school." (Link here for press release and full text of Mayor Anthony William's remarks: Mayor Supports School Choice Initiatives in the District, May 1, 2003.)The support of the Mayor, and other city officials is welcome news and will help strengthen all schools in the District, and will help fuel the efforts by Congress to support DC school reform.

Additional Links:

CER Newswire June 17: SCHOOL CHOICE: Harvard v. Princeton -- Study War, But Kids Win (See also CER Newswire June 10)
CER Newswire May 13, 2003: School Choice Gets a Hearing in DC,
CER Newswire May 6, 2003: Broad Support for DC Choice.
CER Newswire May 1, 2003: District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams, School Board President Peggy Cooper-Cafritz and D.C. City Councilmember Kevin Chavous back school choice plan.

POLL POSITION

POLL FINDS 63% OF AMERICANS FAVOR SCHOOL CHOICE; Other surveys find growing support: Public support for school choice - often referred to as vouchers or scholarships - remains high, with the strongest support found among African Americans, according to a 2002 Center for Education Reform survey.
STRAIGHT TALK ON VOUCHERS: "The Post conducted a poll based on random interviews with 1,002 D.C. adults in May 1998 that asked the following: "Do you favor or oppose using federal money in the form of vouchers to help send low-income students in the District to private or parochial school?" In that poll, 56 percent of city residents said they favored the idea.... A National Opinion Poll on education conducted with 1,678 adults in May 1999 for the nonpartisan, nonprofit Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies ... found that "support for school vouchers among African Americans, which has fluctuated in past Joint Center polls, grew by 25 percent since 1998 with 60 percent of African American respondents favoring school vouchers." Washington Post Editorial, May 12, 2003. Link to complete editorial.
AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPPORT: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies "National Opinion Poll" found that 57.4 percent of African Americans support school choice; support rises to 70.4 percent of African Americans between the age of 26 and 35. CER Newswire May 20, 2003.

In the News:

For the second time in just over a week, the Washington Post poked gaping holes in Cong. Norton's claims and put the record straight. Link here to the Post's May 12 editorial STRAIGHT TALK ON VOUCHERS.
Link to NO GOOD REASON TO OPPOSE SCHOOL VOUCHERS IN D.C. by Deroy Murdock, The Hartford Courant, May 8 2003.
Mayor Endorses Vouchers in D.C., By Craig Timberg and Justin Blum, Washington Post, May 2, 2003.
VOUCHER LESSONS NOT QUITE COMPLETE; DISTRICT PROPOSAL REMAINS UNCLEAR: "Supporters of vouchers contend that the additional options for parents would force D.C. public schools, as well as the private schools, to improve as they tried to boost their enrollments or prevent students from fleeing. Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a District-based group that supports charter schools and vouchers nationally, said vouchers would make it harder for D.C. public schools to delay improvements. 'It has become very easy to make excuses for why everything from facilities aren't fixed to why all teachers are not quality teachers to why we don't have the proper curriculum,' she said. 'It's just a morass.'" By Justin Blum, Washington Post, May 4, 2003. Link to full article.
Also check out VOUCHING FOR VOUCHERS, the May 3, 2003, Washington Post Editorial applauding District officials' move toward vouchers.

STRIKE UP THE BANDWAGON: In a recent Washington Post op-ed, typically anti-reform Peggy Cooper Cafritz, president of the DC school board, has urged the city to embrace vouchers along with facets of other reform efforts, bowing to the fact that while federal leaders would prefer to have city support to make education reform progress in the city, they are ready, willing and able to bring about changes alone if necessary. The Washington Post backed Cafritz's choice support, saying " D.C. children ... deserve the same choices and level playing field as students in stronger public and private school systems elsewhere." Link here to read Ms. Caftirz's commentary, as well as the Washington Post Editorial Page's follow-up.

CAPITOL IDEA: The race is on in the battle to bring to the Nation's Capital a program that would allow disadvantaged children the opportunity to choose among public or private schools. Today's Wall Street Journal offers one side of the story, arguing that without Congress' push, it will never happen in DC. The good news is today there are leaders in the Capitol who do support existing scholarship programs and would entertain a more extensive choice program that gives local leaders an opportunity to opt in. No doubt these are issues that will be played out in the coming weeks, as today Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake is introducing the same bill that passed both houses of Congress in 1997, only to be vetoed at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. For more information about this bill, contact Flake's office at 202-225-2635 or go to http://www.house.gov/flake/

For more on the School Choice debate, check out Nine Lies About School Choice: Answering the Critics: Your Answers to the Nine Most Common and Untruthful Accusations about School Choice. (Click here for no-frames version.)

ANALYSIS:

Test-Score Effects of School Vouchers in Dayton, Ohio, New York City, and Washington D.C.: Evidence from Randomized Field Trials by William G. Howell, Patrick J. Wolf, Paul E. Peterson and David E. Campbell, August 2000
“School Choice in Washington, D.C.: An Evaluation After One Year,” February 2000, Peterson, William Howell (Stanford University), Patrick Wolf (Georgetown University).
Rampaging Toward Choice, by Michael Lynch, Reason magazine, January 2000, tells the stories of families in Washington DC who are seeking a better education for their kids through charter schools and vouchers.
Initial Findings from an Evaluation of School Choice Programs in Washington, D.C. and Dayton, Ohio, by Paul E. Peterson, Jay P. Greene, William G. Howell and William McCready, October 24, 1998
Initial Findings from an Evaluation of School Choice Programs in Washington, D.C., by Paul E. Peterson, Jay P. Greene, William G. Howell and William McCready, September 1, 1998

Search the Reform Update and Monthly Letter Libraries to get the latest developments on school choice state-by-state.

See School Choice Facts for an overview of how school choice programs are not only improving the education opportunity for participating children, but also having a dramatic impact on how non-choice public schools operate.

See Key Legislative Provisions for a point-by-point breakdown and comparison of the Florida, Cleveland and Milwaukee school choice programs.

See School Choice Research for the latest findings on the impact of school choice for students, schools and communities.

See Private Scholarship Programs for state-by-state listings of and links to privately funded school choice programs.

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