Aelflaed blog

The Speaker of the House Rekindles Debate on School Vouchers in D.C

Speaker of the House John Boehner is making school choice once again an integral part of the Republican platform. Hoping to revive a Democrat-nixed school vouchers program in the District of Columbia, Boehner introduces legislation today.

It is a well-known fact that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was the flagship among federally funded school vouchers in the U.S. It benefited approximately . Looking past the benefits that this school choice program afforded students who would traditionally be forced to attend under-performing schools, Democrats refused to continue funding the estimated annual $7,500 per student.

Rather than championing school vouchers -- and a free market forced correction of under-performing schools -- Mayor Adrian Fenty only offered tepid support and instead focused on a government-led . Running from 2004 to about 2009, President Obama eventually .

The Speaker of the House is ready to take on this battle once more.

A short 24 hours after President Obama issued his State of the Union speech -- during which he urged to ensure that children receive the best education possible from the cradle through their entire working lives -- discussing school choice makes a contextual sense.

to again allow low-income children to practice school choice rather than be forced to attend assigned schools is an easy starting point, especially since this program has already been in place. "If the president is sincere about working together on education reform, we should start by saving this successful, bipartisan program," says Mr. Boehner.

Although the battle cry is likely just the opening salvo to what amounts to a number of Democratic-led changes and reforms that the Republican Party will seek to undo, there is more to the school choice debate than meets the eye. The Speaker of the House and his party must answer critics who find that a government-led school vouchers program may be over-reaching, especially since part and parcel of the Republican platform is less government, not more.

Public schools and their union-backed teachers will likely also put up a fight, especially since every empty seat results in a small funding cut. With school budgets already slashed, even a limited school choice program could have a negative impact on the funds needed to turn around the worst-performing schools.