“Go down Moses, tell the Pharaoh let my people go! … Go down
Mr. President, let our children go to the school of their
choice!” former Washington Mayor Marion Barry proclaimed to
applause at the D.C. School Choice Rally yesterday in front of
Capitol Hill.
Moses’ cry to “let my people go” rallied the civil-rights
movement in the 1950s and '60s. The mostly black crowd agreed
with Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who has said that
education is the “civil rights issue of our generation.” Yet on
the issue of D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program allowing school
choice, the president, his Education Department, and Congress
would rather play the role of Pharaoh than Moses.
Some 1,500 people were there — most with yellow T-shirts reading
“Put kids first.” Many of the attendees were students on lunch
break, in addition to several hundred parents and relatives of
students who turned out to voice support for the program. “Give
parents a choice, kids a chance,” said April Cole-Walter, whose
daughter was enrolled under the scholarship program.
Kids in D.C. public schools don’t have much of a chance. Of the
states plus D.C., Washington ranked last, 51st out of 50 states,
in the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2007 test in
8th grade math and reading proficiency rates. Students in voucher
programs have demonstrated better results, yet these data have
not persuaded enough politicians to buck Democratic
constituencies that favor the status quo.
The trouble began in March when Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.)
inserted language in a spending bill that cut the $14 million for
the Opportunity Scholarship Program from the Department of
Education’s budget. The cut meant that the 1,700 scholarships
under the program would be revoked. However, since TAS
reported on the issue in May, the president has allowed
ongoing scholarship recipients to continue through the 12th
grade, but has reneged on incoming scholarship recipients for
this academic year.
Last year, LaTasha Bennett was informed that her 4-year-old
daughter, Nia, would receive a scholarship under the program that
they would use to enroll her in Naylor Road School with her older
brother. But last spring she received a second letter from the
Department of Education that said her daughter’s scholarship was
being canceled because of the program’s termination. Nia was one
of 216 low-income children that had her scholarship revoked by
the Obama administration.
“I’m not going to send my child to a public school,” Ms. Bennett
told TAS yesterday. She then explained that her nephew
had died in a gunfight at a public school and that she would not
allow that to happen to her daughter. Nia is now receiving
support from private donations, allowing her to go to the private
Naylor Road School, but it is uncertain how long she will be able
to continue receiving sufficient donations.
Some children aren’t as fortunate. Virginia Walden Ford,
executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, told
TAS she believed that the majority of the 216
children who had their scholarships revoked were forced to attend
public schools this year.
Also present was Bruce Stewart, former head of Sidwell Friends
School, the prestigious private Quaker school attended by the
president’s children. No new students will attend that school
this year under voucher money — just the students whose parents
can afford it, wealthy students like Sasha and Malia Obama.
Several members of the audience were less than happy with the
Congress. “Durbin, he’s the worst!” a lady said about the
Democratic majority whip. Public support for the D.C. voucher
program has polled at around 75% approval. Yet, teachers unions
overwhelmingly reject vouchers as a solution to failing public
schools. In the 2008 election cycle, 95% of teacher union
political contributions went to Democrats.
Ex-mayor Barry, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and former
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, were among several who
voiced support yesterday for school choice in Washington, D.C. It
remains uncertain what will happen to the program. On July 30,
Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA), George Voinovich (R-OH), Robert Byrd (D-WV),
and John Ensign (R-NV) introduced legislation expanding the
program, but it hasn’t been brought to the floor for a vote. The
bill would authorize $20 million in Opportunity Scholarships.
The fight for school choice in D.C. has pitted predominantly
black, Democratic parents against their own party and produced an
unlikely alliance with the GOP. Barack Obama’s election was
arguably the culmination of the civil rights struggle. But these
parents are still looking for someone to let their people go.
