The administration's cruel treatment of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program continues. The Washington Post editorializes here.
There are so many angles to this, it's hard to decide on which to focus.
That President Obama is happily sending his kids to an expensive private school while this program withers?
That the "do what works" administration is asking for $1.3 billion for another Race to the Top even though not a penny has been spent and we have no idea what results will come of it while unwilling to spend one percent (!) of that annually to keep the OSP going even though it has a gold-standard federal evaluation showing its success?
That the Department got a huge budget increase during a discretionary budget freeze but cut its final request for funding for this tiny program?
That the loss of this program will almost certainly lead to the closure of more high-performing faith-based DC schools when the administration argues for the importance of high-quality education options?
This is a black mark on this administration's education record. Yes, ED and White House officials will continue to crow that RTT has led to some important state-level policy changes, but the low-income families of the nation's capital won't find much solace in Wisconsin's data firewall removal or Tennessee's charter cap lift.
I suspect they just want what the president has: the opportunity to choose a safe, high-performing private school when the local neighborhood school isn't the right fit.
--Andy Smarick