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Black Alliance for Educational Options
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WASHINGTON, DC (March 29, 2011) - African American and Hispanic leaders tonight sharply criticized the Obama Administration’s official announcement opposing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a highly successful school voucher initiative serving low-income children in the District of Columbia. The following is a statement from Kevin P. Chavous, the chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, and Julio Fuentes, the president of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options:
"President Barack Obama's opposition to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program is hypocritical and it is wrong. If President Obama continues his fight against school choice and education reform, history will long remember him as someone who failed to stand up to richly funded special interest groups and, in the process, denied low-income and minority children access to better schools. As leaders in the African American and Hispanic communities, we call on the president to reverse his position—not as a matter of ideology, but as a matter of social justice.
President Obama attended private schools using scholarships. As a parent, President Obama exercises school choice for his own daughters. But when it comes to other children in Washington, D.C. — most of whom are African American and Hispanic—our president apparently does not believe these children deserve the same high-quality opportunities. As a candidate, Senator Obama promised to "fund what works in education, regardless of ideology." But as President, the same principle and the same sound logic seemingly doesn't apply.
When it comes to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), the President's views aren't only wrong—his facts are faulty. The OSP yields a 91 percent student graduation rate for children who use their vouchers, which is 30 percentage points higher than graduation rates for students in D.C.’s public schools. Parental satisfaction with the OSP is overwhelming. More than 28 percent of public schools have reported innovating as a result of the program. And students are gaining several additional months of learning in reading. To top it off, the program educates children at less than half of the per-child cost of the D.C. Public Schools.
By any metric, by any measure, and by any reasonable standard, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program should be a model for the nation. Instead, it is on life support—thanks in no small part to the actions and inactions of President Barack Obama—who has opted to ignore inconvenient realities instead of taking courageous stands.
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