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House passes dc voucher plan { September 5 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31296-2003Sep5.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31296-2003Sep5.html
House Passes D.C. Vouchers Plan
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 5, 2003; 3:40 PM
The U.S. House of Representatives today narrowly approved a five-year, $10 million-a-year plan to give thousands of District students grants of up to $7,500 to attend private schools beginning next year, calling the proposal for the country's first federally funded voucher program "shock treatment" to a failing local public education system..
Voting 205 to 203, House Republicans by a bare margin attached the experiment to the District's $5.6 billion 2004 budget. The vote delivered a slender victory to President Bush, who was otherwise rebuffed by Congress in his bid for a $75 million, five-city pilot education choice initiative.
After the vote, Republicans held over the budget bill and the voucher program until Tuesday for a final vote, that opponents hope to use as another chance to scuttle the voucher plan.
The vote climaxed more than three hours of debate on the House floor and weeks of lobbying by conservative libertarian and religious groups and key District leaders, including Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), in support of vouchers and a coalition of public school teachers, administrators, civil liberties groups and other District officials in opposition.
In the end, advocates credited the support of the mayor, School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz and Council Member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7) for providing local blessing to the federal attempt to create competition for the public schools -- and blamed the failure of District schools for creating a crisis.
"The fact is, the monopoly of the District of Columbia school system is hurting kids, not helping them. It is time to shake up that monopoly," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), author of the House plan with Reps. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.).
"This is shock treatment to the public education system," Davis said. "It is time to do more than sympathize. This is a moral imperative."
Opponents said the District program is a stalking horse used by anti-public education forces to impose an unproven idea of diverting taxpayer funds to subsidize private and religious schools, and that it would open the door to similar efforts elsewhere. Critics said schools receiving vouchers would be unaccountable in spending public money, which they contend would be better used to close a $9 billion un-funded obligation for national public education reform in budget-stressed states and school districts across the country.
"A vote for vouchers anywhere in the country, especially in this economic climate, will be heard and felt throughout the country, especially in your own district," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who led opposition to vouchers in the city citing deep public antipathy. "We are not to be your pilot. We are not to be your experiment. You want to experiment? Do it in your own states. Don't do it in the District of Columbia."
Today's vote came a day after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a slightly larger $13 million school voucher plan for the District that also included $26 million for regular and charter public schools. The panel endorsed the program by a vote of 16 to 12 and accepted changes sought by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who along with ranking Democrat Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) crossed party lines to vote for the plan. Among Republicans, only Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) voted against it. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) abstained.
The five-year program approved by the committee would award private-school tuition grants of up to $7,500 to students in families earning up to 185 percent of the poverty level -- $34,000 for a family of four -- and would cover about 2,000 children. Priority for the "opportunity scholarships" would be given to students from failing public schools.
The legislation could reach the Senate floor as early as next week, a committee official said. Democrats on the committee vowed to continue the fight there by amassing the 41 votes needed to sustain a threatened filibuster. They said the voucher plan was an irresponsible use of tax dollars to placate anti-government conservatives and religious groups. The Democrats also called the plan counterproductive while national public school reforms embraced by Bush and both parties are underfunded by $9 billion.
"Education reform in America or in the District will not be achieved by giving a few children a choice. It will be achieved by giving all children a chance," Landrieu said yesterday.
The committee rejected, 22 to 7, a proposal by Landrieu that would have required private schools to assess the performance of their voucher-funded students using the same tests that public schools administer to their pupils. Landrieu's proposal also would have specified that the $26 million in new money provided to D.C. public schools under the legislation is not contingent on the voucher money.
A proposal by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) to require that teachers at participating private schools have college degrees in core subject areas and that the schools meet city fire and safety codes failed, 15 to 14.
"We're being asked to adapt the first voucher program in America with federal funds," Durbin said yesterday. "What will we require of these schools that accept this money? What are the standards we will set?"
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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