Letter to the Editor
Washington Post
October 9, 2015
Missing from the Oct. 9 Metro article “8 on council seek end to private school vouchers” were the voices of families and students who have benefited from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, a life-changing path to a better education and a brighter future. Those voices, it seems, were also missing from conversations in the Wilson Building that led a majority of the D.C. Council to speak out against the program on behalf of their constituents.
Even with public school choices available to a growing number of residents through the District’s strong community of charter schools, too many D.C. families remain tied to their assigned neighborhood schools, some of which have been failing kids for generations. The council members who decry the scholarship program are using it as a political football (again) and an opportunity to spout a home-rule agenda.
They should look beyond their own political ambitions and listen to the stories of thousands of their constituents who have been offered a lifeline out of failing schools and have formed the foundation of a stronger future because of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program and its support.
Kara Kerwin, Washington
The writer is president of the Center for Education Reform.