Obama’s Compromise on DC Vouchers May 7th, 2009

We lamented President Obama’s decision to swiftly end the D.C. voucher program, noting that his administration, which doles out billions of dollars for careless bankers and failed automakers, couldn’t find a trifling $15 million for poor children in the District of Columbia.  The Post reports today that the president has yielded to his better judgment and is proposing a fairer method of ending a program, which ideally would not end.

The program provided school vouchers for low-income children in the District to attend private schools for two-year stints.  Those in the program showed modest academic improvement and parents were much happier with their chosen schools.  It’s no secret that teachers’ unions are hostile to school choice, since it risks diverting public funds from the failed schools they control to the private and parochial schools in which they have little clout.  The unions pressured Congress, which is now majority Democrat, and Congress obliged by refusing to renew the voucher program.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan swiftly rescinded the vouchers for the upcoming year, pronouncing the program dead.

The president is now proposing a compromise: the children currently enrolled in the program will receive vouchers through their high school graduations, but no new students will be admitted to the program.  This is an improvement over the previous plan, which would have kicked kids of modest means to the curb come September.

The president is right to strike a compromise— compromises are necessary in a democracy— but the president’s choice to compromise on this subject is worrying.  On one side are children from low-income families that have few choices for quality education.  On the other side are powerful, deep-pocketed teachers’ unions that oppose reform or real accountability measures that might inconvenience or shrink their membership.

Ideally, Mr. Obama would expand the program to afford more low-income District children the ability to escape the city’s schools, which are among the worst in the nation.  Mr. and Mrs. Obama, upon moving to the White House, passed over the city’s public schools in favor of the private Sidwell Friends School.  Why are the Obamas’ neighbors any less deserving?

Normally it is good for a president to compromise, and this compromise is likely the best he could achieve with this Congress.  Nonetheless, this compromise suggests a moral equivalence between low-income children looking for a good education and powerful teachers’ unions looking to protect their privilege.

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Update:
On a positive note, the president is proposing $517 million for merit-pay programs.  Let us hope this is not window-dressing.