White House Says Obama Will Not Allow D.C. School Vouchers To Expire

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insinuated today that President Obama will reverse a provision in the omnibus spending bill to terminate school vouchers for underprivileged students in Washington, D.C.

(CBS)

The president signed the $410 billion dollar omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2009 this afternoon. It includes a provision that lets funding for the city's school voucher program to expire at the end of the 2010 school year. The program allows about 1,700 mostly low-income and minority students to attend private schools as an alterative to the struggling D.C. public school system.

"It wouldn't make sense to disrupt the education of those that are in that system," Gibbs said in discussing the president's thinking. "And I think we'll work with Congress to ensure that a disruption like that doesn't take place."

Asked if President Obama plans to restore the program's funding in his full budget, which is currently being drafted, Gibbs said, "whether it's in the budget or in the -- the appropriations process," the administration will work to make sure "that disruption doesn't take place."

Gibbs also said that the voucher program, which benefits students attending his daughter's private school, is not a long term solution to the problem of subpar city schools.

"The president doesn't believe that vouchers are a long-term answer to our educational problems and the challenges that face our public school system, where the vast majority of -- of students are educated in this country," he said.

The Senate voted 50 to 39 Tuesday to reject a Republican-sponsored amendment to the spending bill which would have extended the voucher program beyond the 2009-2010 school year.

[Medallion22]

You guys are over reacting! The Democrats only support programs that don't work. Heaven forbid we bring a few African Americans out of the hood.

A few more tid bits of info. I found out after reading this story. The voucher program provided parents with a $7,500 tax credit to send their children to their choice of private schools. Guess how much money DC spends on each child per year? 13k, which makes perfect since because anytime you involve the government you need to add a minimum of 30% for waste, and a bunch of lazy bureaucrats. So, lets do some quick math. The DC schools spent nothing on this program because it was sponsored by the Feds, it cost the Fed. around 15 mil. Now, since the program won't be moving forward it looks like the DC schools are going to have to come up with an extra 25 mil., now we are making since from a Democrat perspective. Let us delete a program that is successful and changing the lives of many minorities living in poverty, and poor more money in a system that has been established not to work. Now your talking Democrat.

Now, let's talk about Obama. I challenge the Obama's to enroll their daughters into DC's finest public schoosl. He is forcing over 1,900 children to go back to the fine public schools of DC. Are they not good enough for the Obama children? I mean, Obama seems like the type of leader that would lead by example, right. I put it you Obama, you should let your daughters follow the same dream your enslaving upon these 1900 poor minorities children you claim to care so much about.

Obama ran on the campaign promise's to be transparent and not give into special interest.(Teacher's Union, NEA, AFT) Oh, that was just a campaign promise right. What about the other promise's to alleviate programs that don't work and keep the programs that do work. Oh, right, that was just a campaign promise. The bottom line is that Obama ran on a campaign of changing the way things get done in Washington, DC. As it turns out, he is just another tax and spend liberal Democrat.

[leonjonessr]

I cannot understand why this program in D.C. is being discontinued. Mr. Obama said he wanted to eliminate those program that were not successful. Well, this is one that is very successful and the parents are happy because now they can see a future for their children. If Mr. Obama ends this program he obviously does not want these kids to succeed.

[AndrewJCoulson]

The actual total per pupil spending in DC this year on k-12 education is $26,555, while the average tuition at the voucher schools was $5,928 last year. For the official source links and calculations of these figures, see:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/03/06/vouchers-vs-the-district-with-more-money-than-god/

The voucher students perform at least as well as public school students and their parents are significantly happier, according to the official Dept. of Ed. report published last year. So the private school choice program is more than four times as efficient as the DC public shools.

[whowon]

We would like vouchers in all cities across the country, all or none.

[boosterprez1]

Saturn05 is obviously not informed on the subject...it's not about the schools, it's about the kids....poor kids who were forced to go to poor schools are given a chance at a better education...an education that their families could otherwise not afford...an education that, at $7500 per student, is about $7,000 cheaper than a D.C. public school education.

A better education at half the price....

Who (besides Saturn05) could argue with this logic? It's all taxpayer money that's being spent....don't we want our tax dollars spent wisely?

[saturn05]

If these schools want to be private or selective, then pay for it yourself. Vouchers and charter schools need to be eliminated if taxpayer money is being spent. Why don't we just allow segregated schools again?