Big Government: President Obama seeks to end D. C. Voucher Program ---- again

[Patricia M. McBride]

Voucher programs put children in private schools where they might actually get a quality education, and Obama can't stand the thought I don't think.  He wants everyone only taught what he wants them taught and wants absolute control over everyone's child, so they can be pumped full of the socialist propaganda.  I think he truly fears home schoolers and private schools.............

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Valentine’s Day came early last week for the American Federation of Teachers.

Last Monday, President Barack Obama unveiled his budget for 2013 which contains $3.8 trillion in spending – but not a dime of support for the very successful D.C. voucher program.

The AFT has long opposed the Opportunity Scholarship Program (the voucher plan’s official name) because it allows low-income students in the District of Columbia to escape the union-controlled dropout factories known as D.C. Public Schools. Since 2004, thousands of students have been given vouchers ranging from $8,000 to $12,000 to attend the private school of their choice.

In the AFT’s view, not only do vouchers siphon off dollars that should be going to “their” schools, but the success many voucher students achieve through the program exposes the deficiencies of union-run schools. That’s why it wants to shut down the program.

And Obama has been a willing accomplice. He tried to snuff out the Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2009 by announcing that no new students would be allowed to join. House Speaker John Boehner got it restored through 2016 as part of last year’s budget deal, but that is in jeopardy, as Obama’s budget makes clear.

According to the American Federation for Children, OSP students have a “91 percent graduation rate (which) is 21 percentage points higher than those who applied but couldn’t get a scholarship.”

“And according to the Institute of Education Sciences – the primary research arm of the U.S. Department of Education – the OSP has the second highest achievement impact of any of the programs it has studied so far,” the group writes in a press release.

WJLA.com interviewed one woman who has four children in the voucher program.

“I didn’t feel [my kids] were getting the proper education in public school and they get the best education here,” Antonia Coles said. “Without the scholarship, I don’t know what I would do.”

Read more here:  http://biggovernment.com/eagtv/2012/02/20/president-obama-seeks-to-...