New Ranking Makes Case for Continuing Endangered D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, Which Boosts Graduation Rates for Students by 21 Percentage Points

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Education Week's ranking of D.C.'s overall public education system as the 50th worst in the nation raises serious questions about last year's decision by Congress to eliminate the District's Opportunity Scholarship Program, advocates said today.

Quality Counts, Education Week's annual ranking of the effectiveness of public education in states and jurisdictions across the country, graded D.C.'s system a "D plus" and its student achievement an "F." The report was released this week.

"No mother or father would or should accept a D grade from their child, and no mother or father should accept a D or an F grade from their local school system," said Virginia Walden Ford, executive director of DC Parents for School Choice. "The best way to move education in D.C. up to an 'A grade' is by expanding choices for parents and by increasing the opportunity for children to graduate from high school and pursue their dreams."

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program – which advocates are fighting to restore and expand – increased student graduation rates by more than 20 percentage points and boasted dramatically-high parental satisfaction numbers. A bill to reauthorize the program is being sponsored by Speaker John Boehner in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) in the U.S. Senate.

"While D.C. education is improving – thanks to the reforms of the previous city administration and the commitment of the city's new leadership to continue with a reform agenda – far too many parents are still forced to send their children to underperforming public schools," said Kevin P. Chavous, chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options. "A significant majority of D.C. residents, along with local leaders of all political parties, agree that the scholarship program works and should be offered to additional low-income children."

SOURCE DC Parents for School Choice