There's a bit of good news for the school voucher program in America's capital.
The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program has been helping more than 1,000 children from failing inner-city schools obtain a better education at higher performing schools in the city. However, Congress decided recently to drop funding for the five-year-old voucher program and only allow existing scholarship holders to complete their schooling. But some lawmakers and parents want to save the program and even expand it to include more children. Now members of the DC City Council have joined the fight, asking Congress to let them have the final say over whether the program survives. Lindsey Burke with The Heritage Foundation calls this development good news. "The DC City Council sent a letter of support for the program to Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Mayor Adrian Fenty, saying that they would like to see the program expanded," she explains. "And this letter was signed onto by seven of the 13 members of the DC City Council." According to Burke, that endorsement demonstrates that a majority of the Council approves of the voucher program as well as the plans to continue and expand it. "And it really does have a lot of strong local support, which is really good news for these families," she adds. Burke notes that although President Obama participates in school choice in DC, his support for the program has been "lacking." He does, however, support allowing existing scholarship holders to finish their education through the program.
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