Senators Launch Bipartisan Effort to Save D.C. School Choice

Sen. Lieberman Introduces Bill Preserving D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program

Cosponsors Include Diane Feinstein and Robert Byrd
WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) today unveiled a bipartisan
reauthorization bill for the D.C. school voucher program.

Lieberman, along with Susan Collins (R-ME) and four other senators, introduced
legislation this morning to reauthorize and strengthen the D.C. Opportunity
Scholarship Program (OSP) for five years. This move provides continued hope for
thousands of low-income families in the District of Columbia who seek equal
access to a quality education.

"This is not a liberal program or a conservative program, but a program that
puts children first," Lieberman said. "And I am proud to say that it's working."

Under Senator Lieberman`s bill, the program would be preserved and strengthened
significantly. The Lieberman bill would increase scholarship amounts to $9,000
for K-8 students and $11,000 for high school students-indexing the scholarship
amounts to inflation. While these amounts remain significantly below the amounts
for the D.C. Public Schools, they provide the necessary increases to account for
inflation over the past five years.

The bill would also:

--Give scholarship priority to siblings of students who currently participate in
the program

--Require participating schools to have a valid certificate of occupancy

--Require teachers of core subject matters to have bachelor`s degrees

--Require an Institute of Education Sciences annual evaluation of the program

--Require students to take nationally norm-referenced tests

To date, the program has allowed low-income children to receive up to $7,500 in
scholarships to attend the private schools of their parent`s choice. Since its
inception in 2004, the program has served more than 3,000 residents-primarily
extremely low-income children. More than 8,000 families have applied for
scholarships, demonstrating overwhelming demand.

The school choice initiative in the nation`s capital has been bolstered by more
than five rigorous studies demonstrating positive student achievement outcomes
and parental support. The OSP is supported by a majority of the D.C. City
Council and has the backing of nearly three quarters of D.C. residents-according
to a poll released this week.

In May, a similar bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by
Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). Mr. Boehner is a longtime champion of
the scholarship program and has spearheaded efforts in the House to preserve the
program for low-income District families.

"Today`s action is a strong step in the right direction for low-income D.C.
families," said Kevin Chavous, the former D.C. City Councilman who is leading
the fight to save the OSP. "We are pleased to see a strong, bipartisan effort to
provide continued opportunity and hope to D.C. children through the extension
and strengthening of the OSP.

Chavous added that efforts remain underway to save the educational futures of
the so-called "D.C. 216"-a group of students who had their 2009-10 scholarship
offerings revoked by the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year. He
applauded Senators Lieberman and Collins, as well as 12 other Senators, who had
previously written to Secretary Duncan expressing support for these children to
enter the program.

The Alliance for School Choice is a national leader in promoting school vouchers
and scholarship tax credit programs. For more information, visit
www.AllianceforSchoolChoice.org.

Alliance for School Choice
Andrew Campanella, 202-276-1303
acampanella@allianceforschoolchoice.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009