DoE agency attempts to Bury the Third Year DC Evaluation

April 3, 2009

DoE to DC kids

(Guest Post byMatthew Ladner)

The third year evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program is out, and the results are POSITIVE.

I’ll leave a discussion of the results to others. I’m feeling more than a little perturbed by the blatant Machiavellian politics surrounding the use of the report. 

The Department of Education released this report today, on a Friday afternoon. This constitutes a completely obvious attempt to draw as little media attention as possible.

Worse still: WHERE WAS THIS REPORT DURING THE DEBATE ON THE FUTURE OF THE PROGRAM?

Let’s review: the Congress essentially voted to kill the program a few weeks ago, this report must have been sitting on some bureaucrat’s desk in the department of education. A number of Democrats, including President Obama by the way, have stated that they are open to the school vouchers depending upon the results of research.

A few weeks later, the Department releases the study in a way obviously calculated to draw the least amount of attention. I’m starting to read the report, but the press release looks to contain some negative spin as well.

The future of 1,700 students at stake, after all, and such attempts at manipulation are simply sickening.

3 Comments | vouchers | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Save the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program

February 26, 2009

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The Wall Street Journal weighs in here.

Coulson in the New York Post.

2 Comments | vouchers | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Assassination for D.C. Vouchers?

February 25, 2009

the-assassin

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

In case you haven’t heard, it’s been discovered that the Democrats snuck a provision into the “stimulus” “omnibus”* bill that assassinates the D.C. voucher program.

Dan Lips and Robert Enlow have the story on NRO today; the link on the front page is broken as of this writing, but you can get the story here.

I’m not sure what’s most disgusting – that the Dems are putting union politics ahead of children’s lives, that they’re doing it in this cowardly way, or that the president broke his promise to make the text of the bill available to legislators and the public with plenty of time to review the contents and justified his decision by saying that we had to pass the bill immediately to avert a catastrophe.

What did the president know, and when did he know it? Seems like there’s no answer to that question that makes him look good.

*UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters for correcting my mistake. How could I possibly mix up the “stimulus” bill with the “omnibus” bill? I mean, other than the fact that they’re both nothing but special interest porkapaloozas, they’re so completely different! Even so, I’m leaving in my comment about the president having broken his word on making the text of the stimulus bill available, because he did break his word and it was wrong. And the question of what the president knew about the voucher assassination attempt and when he knew it still seems 1) relevant and 2) not to admit of answers that make him look good.

4 Comments | politics, vouchers | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

Next Entries »