BACK DOOR MAN:

Bush Budget Includes D.C. School Vouchers (Lena H. Sun and Valerie Strauss, February 3, 2003, Washington Post)

President Bush will ask Congress to institute a school voucher program that would allow families in the District to use public funds to attend private schools, according to part of his budget to be released today.

An Education Department spokesman said yesterday that the fiscal 2004 budget proposal contains an estimated $756 million in school choice programs, with a small portion to be used for a pilot voucher plan in the District and several other cities. Spokesman Dan Langan said money would also go toward charter schools and transfers among public schools.

For years, Republican legislators have pushed for school vouchers as an option for low-income families trapped in poorly performing schools. But D.C. school and city leaders have opposed such an approach, saying that it would drain critically needed funds from the school system and that the city already offers forms of school choice to its residents.

"This board is solidly against vouchers," school board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz said yesterday. "Another thing that really concerns me about this big-time is that this probably reflects lobbying by people whose goals are different than the people who live here."

One thing that's missing from many of the stories about the difficulties states are going to have meeting the standards of "No Child Left Behind" is that when schools fail it will make the children eligible to go to another public school, effectively creating the beginnings of a voucher system in the entire nation. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2003 7:33 PM