Patrick McIlheran at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asks, “And what happens to results showing school choice works?” His answer: “Well, if it’s in the hands of a federal government hostile to the idea, it gets covered up… The students were tested in the spring, the results analyzed in the summer and the preliminary findings given to the team working with the Department of Education in November. Why, then, didn’t the department chime in when Congress was ending choice?”
Joanne Jacobs asks: “What did Education Secretary Arne Duncan know about the study’s findings and when did he know it? Duncan had to know during the voucher reauthorization debate that D.C.’s program is advancing students by nearly half a year, editorializes the Wall Street Journal. Why didn’t he speak up?”
Michelle Malkin writes: “It would have been helpful to know about a Department of Education study on D.C.’s school choice initiative before the Democrats — beholden to teachers unions allergic to competition — voted to starve the innovative program benefiting poor, minority children in the worst school district in the nation. Somehow, the results of the study conducted last spring didn’t surface until now.”
As Matt has already noted, Whitney Tilson of Democrats for Education Reform has chimed in warning that charter supporters shouldn’t think they are safe if vouchers get squeezed. As he put it: “First they came for the vouchers. I remained silent because I was not for vouchers….”
I’ve already noted, Neal McCluskey has an excellent post on the impotence of “tough talk” on education from the Obama administration when they won’t act to defend choice.
Lisa Snell argues: “Kids in the D.C. Opportunity scholarship program deserve the same chance to go to a higher quality school as President Obama’s own children. The taxpayers of the United States deserve at least one education program that actually gets results in exchange for the money.”
And this photo on “From the Pen” says it all.
“Democrats Block School Choice… Again”
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
[…] for the job? Be prepared for a grueling interview… if you have the right qualifications More DC Voucher Buzz – jaypgreene.com 04/07/2009 Patrick McIlheran at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asks, “And what […]
Milton Friedman observed that competitors in a market for any good or service (including education) have an incentive to publicize information which producers of defective services have an incentive to hide. When one organization produces a good or service, studies its own performance, chooses the time and the venue for release of the study, and has no competitors, that organization has a strong incentive to minimize, distort, or hide unfavorable information. This in itself is a strong argument for vouchers or for an unsubsidized market in education services.
Very good point, Malcolm. The consumers out here who support school choice and educational freedom should take it on themselves to make noise and ensure that Democrats and bureaucrats in Washington cannot kill the D.C. voucher program quietly:
http://ednewscolorado.org/blog/index.php/2009-04-07/despiet-new-evidence-dc-vouchers-on-chopping-block/