This week, the Bush Administration released its proposed multi-trillion dollar federal budget for 2004. Included is $75 million for a new Choice Incentive Fund that would allow the Department of Education to make competitive awards directly to states, local education agencies and community-based non-profit organizations with proven records of securing educational opportunities for children. [For a summary of the proposed U.S. Department of Education budget, go to http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget04/04summary/section1.html and scroll down to "expanding options for parents".] The Department says that priority will be given to applicants that provide expanded choice opportunities to large numbers of students, and that a small portion of the money would be reserved for school choice programs in Washington, D.C. (Last year, the President proposed $50 million for a Choice Incentive Fund but it didn't survive.)
Predictably, D.C. school board president Peggy Cooper-Cafritz condemned the new plan, declaring herself appalled that the Administration wants to inflict unwanted choice dollars upon the District. What most alarms Ms. Cooper-Cafritz is that the Bush proposal "probably reflects lobbying by people whose goals are different than the people who live here." Maybe she means goals that are different from those running the public-school system! There's no doubt that proponents of the new Choice Incentive Fund have opted to put the goal of expanding opportunities for D.C. children above the traditional District focus on sustaining mediocrity and expanding bureaucracy. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting delegate to the House, also expressed her shock that the Administration would insert a voucher proposal into the budget without consulting city officials.
As for the Administration, it seems of two or three minds about its own D.C. proposal (which is one of a number of choice-related items in the new budget). First, Secretary Paige announced that the choice fund would only pay for private school vouchers if the city agrees to the program. Later, however, Education Department spokesman Dan Langan implied that such assent might not be a prerequisite, noting that "a nonprofit organization in the city might be an entity that would get the grant." Of course this is all moot if Congress again spurns the President's request for any type of education-choice fund.
"Bush aide says voucher offer would require D.C.'s agreement" by Justin Blum and Michael A. Fletcher, The Washington Post, February 4, 2003
"Bush budget includes D.C. school vouchers" by Lena H. Sun and Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, February 3, 2003
