Friday, June 11, 2004
Washington Post Gets It Wrong On Voucher Participation
Today's Post contains a negatively slanted story on student participation in the City's new voucher program. Justin Blum complains that only 1200 kids have enrolled for 1600 available slots. Well it should be no surprise that I see the picture differently. The law passed in January after months of press quoting public leaders who said that the plan would kill public education. In March enrollment information was first made available by the Washington Scholarship Fund. 1200 public school students applied with an additional 523 requests coming from those already in private schools. Factors such as space limitations in certain grade levels and a desire not to subsidize those already in private schools work together to limit the number to 1200. (It must be kept in mind that the article says that those who sought vouchers and are already in private schools did meet the eligibility requirements. This means that the families of these kids are already sacrificing quite a bit to escape from the public school system.) 50 private schools are already participating in the program. 30% are non-sectarian. I think its a great start.
For a list of the bold schools participating in the program so far click here.
PermaLink | 4:42 AM |
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For a list of the bold schools participating in the program so far click here.
PermaLink | 4:42 AM |
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