Washington Scholarship Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 3, 2009
CONTACT: Byron Davis
202-222-0535

D.C. School Choice Program Helps Students Perform at Higher Levels, Says Much-Anticipated Report from U.S. Dept. of Education

• The program works – participating students show significant academic gains
• Parents remain very satisfied with chosen schools – find them safer and more orderly
• Demand for program remains high – over 8,000 applicants since program began in 2004
• Despite students’ successes, Sen. Durbin and Del. Norton seek to kill program
  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A report released today by the U.S. Department of Education (DoE) confirms what parents in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (D.C. OSP) have known for years: D.C. OSP students are performing at higher academic levels than their peers who are not in the program, and are better off by virtually every important measure in their chosen schools.

The DoE report offers the most unambiguous academic proof yet that the five-year-old D.C. OSP is working for low-income D.C. students and families. Overall, scholarship students are performing at statistically higher levels in reading – over three months ahead of their peers who did not receive scholarships. In addition, the report shows that some scholarship students are as many as two years ahead in reading compared to their peers without scholarships.

The report also finds that using a scholarship significantly increases parents’ satisfaction with their children’s schools in every measurable area. About 75% of scholarship parents give their children’s schools an ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade, and view their chosen schools as safer and more orderly. (The full DoE report may be accessed online at http://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=NCEE20094050.)

Despite the D.C. OSP’s success, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) are working relentlessly – and inexplicably – to terminate the program. As a result, even though Congress recently made funding available for the D.C. OSP for a sixth year (the 2009-2010 school year), the program’s future remains uncertain.

“It is unacceptable to ignore this overwhelming evidence that the scholarship program is working,” says Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Chairman of WSF’s Board of Directors, citing the DoE report. “Our Mayor and Schools Chancellor – along with thousands of families looking for school choice – want this program to be available, yet Senator Durbin and Delegate Norton want to kill it? We welcome a change of heart based on these new findings, or shame on them, if that’s possible.”

D.C. OSP students receive up to $7,500 per year to pay for tuition, transportation, and school fees at participating private schools in the District’s boundaries. If not for the D.C. OSP, 86% of current scholarship students would be attending failing public schools under federal No Child Left Behind guidelines.

The Washington Scholarship Fund (WSF) was selected in 2004 to administer this first-of-its-kind program designed to give expanded school choice options to low-income D.C. residents. Under the federal initiative, equal funding amounts – roughly $13 million per year – also have been made available to D.C. public schools and public charter schools as part of the District’s “three-sector” approach to education reform.

Parent Chanicka Herring has a young daughter, Ahmari, in the program and she has recently applied for her son. “She has improved so much at her new school that she’s on the Honor Roll. I just had a parent-teacher conference and she’s reading better, her math is better, and even her behavior is better,” she says. “I can see so much improvement in her that I want this scholarship for my son too. It would be very sad if I can’t give my children the best.”

Schools participating in the D.C. OSP also see first-hand how this program is working for low-income students and families. Ms. Lillette Campbell, Principal of Bridges Academy serving over 150 students throughout the city – 90 of whom receive Opportunity Scholarships – says, “At first many of the D.C. OSP families struggled to adapt to this new environment – they weren’t used to being so involved in a positive learning community. But over time, we were able to help the D.C. OSP students begin to see their potential and they have made gains,” says Ms. Campbell. “What’s equally impressive is that the parents have grown too – this is what our City needs, and the D.C. OSP helps us get there.”

As intended, the D.C. OSP is serving the District’s most economically and educationally disadvantaged students and families. In the program’s fifth academic year, 1,716 low-income D.C. students were enrolled in 49 of 52 participating non-public schools in the District. The average income among those participating families is approximately $24,000, far below the program’s financial eligibility requirement for first-time applicants (185 percent, or $40,793 for a family of four).

###