Obama Caves, Won't Force 1,200 Kids Back Into Failed DC School System

Obama has repeatedly tried to kill the DC scholarship program that enables about 1,200 DC kids to escape from the hole that is the DC school system. Republicans kept pushing back and funding the program and now Obama has agreed to keep it alive.

A small but important victory.

"Thousands of families have taken advantage of this scholarship program to give their children an opportunity to succeed in life, and there's strong evidence that it's both effective and cost-effective," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement today. "I'm pleased that an agreement has been reached to expand the program, consistent with the law already on the books.

Ninety-one percent of the District students who participate in the scholarship program graduate from high school, and yet the Senate Democrats voted in 2009, at the behest of the National Education Association teachers' union, to bar new students from entering the program.

House Republicans succeeded in reauthorizing the scholarship program in 2011, but the president chose not to fund the program in his most recent budget request. That decision threatened 1,200 students who applied for scholarships this year.

Related enough: Black families are the fastest growing segment of home schoolers.

If Republicans are ever going to make gains with minority voters (or at least limit the damage with them), education choice is probably one of the best issues we have to connect with them on.

The GOP has been fighting for school choice for awhile now, perhaps we're starting to see some of the fruits of that effort.

posted by DrewM. at 01:56 PM

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