Norton Says House and Senate Republicans Hypocritically Impose Private School Vouchers on D.C. While Voting Against a National Voucher Program for Their Own Districts

Statement

After the Senate passed its reauthorization the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) today and after the House passed its bill last week, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that all amendments introduced in the House and Senate to establish national voucher programs as part of ESEA reauthorization had failed, "starkly demonstrating that there is no support nationally or in Congress for private school vouchers." Despite this lack of national support, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing in May in which Republican Members vowed to reauthorize the D.C. private school voucher program, which is set to expire after fiscal year 2016. Norton said D.C. residents have voted with their feet and an overflow of applications for public charter schools as their chosen alternative to D.C. Public Schools (DCPS). Meanwhile, Norton said, DCPS has improved so much that it has become increasingly competitive with public charter schools and the city has had to put DCPS and public charter schools in the same lottery system. Norton and the Obama Administration earlier agreed to a compromise allowing all students currently in the D.C. voucher program to remain in their private schools until they graduate from high school, but the Republican Congress continues to insist on reauthorizing the program for new students. The controversial voucher program, which provides federal funds for low-income D.C. students to attend private schools in D.C., was first imposed by Congress on the District in 2004. The authorization for the experimental five-year program expired in 2009, but was reauthorized for five more years in 2011, when Republicans took back control of the House.

"While Republican Members vote against voucher programs being established in their home states, they turn around and hypocritically vote to impose private school vouchers on the District alone," Norton said. "Those Members apparently do not dare bring private school vouchers to their own districts for fear of losing their seats. Almost half of the District's students are in public charter schools. If Republicans were interested in improving public education in the District with funding, they would put those funds where parents send their children: to public charter schools and DCPS."

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