In 4th Grade, Shirley-Ann Tomdio’s life changed forever when she was accepted into the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP), which allowed her to transfer from a failing D.C. public school to Sacred Heart, a private Catholic school. Shirley, the daughter of two Cameroon, African immigrants, used the voucher for nine years.
Shirley testified to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on May 14, 2015 at Archbishop Carroll High School in Northeast D.C. to discuss the possibility of reauthorizing the DCOSP.
“In 2009, I graduated Sacred Heart School as the valedictorian and took my Opportunity Scholarship across town to Georgetown Visitation (Prep School)!” Shirley told federal lawmakers on Thursday. “At Visitation, I made Second Honors my first two years and First Honors in my third and fourth year. I was a decorated member of the track and field team, co-editor of our school’s Art and Literary magazine, a cheerleader for our school’s pep rally, and the Secretary and Treasurer of the Black Women’s Society. In May 2013, I walked across the stage and accepted my diploma.”
The voucher program for low-income children was enacted a year after congress passed the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act of 2003. The program has been extraordinarily successful for the District’s most disadvantaged children. Consider:
- in 2014, 89 percent of beneficiaries graduated on time vs. 58 percent of D.C. public school students;
- for a high school education, it cost $12,000 per scholarship student annually vs. $20,000 per D.C. public school student; and
- 97 percent of voucher recipients are African American or Latino.
The scholarship program has been under assault since President Obama took office. The program ceased to exist in the first year he took office, but came back in 2011 through passage of the bipartisan SOAR Act. Every single year since then, his Administration has proposed to eliminate program entirely by excluding it from the budget.
Each year, supporters of the scholarship work extremely hard to get congress to reauthorize the program. The critics, led by the president and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, fight tooth-and-nail on behalf of failing schools and the unions, by rehashing old arguments and using outdated numbers. Thankfully, the bipartisan coalition led by school choice champions like Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Rep. Luke Messer (R-IN) on Capitol Hill continue to remain strong and committed to ensuring parent choice prevails.