House votes to direct $100M in taxpayer dollars to religious private schools

by: Mike Daniels

Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives (many of whom were elected on promises of cost-cutting and budget-slashing) voted to direct $100M of your taxpayer dollars to prop up private religious schools in Washington, DC.

In a 225 to 195 vote, the House approved H.R. 471, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act. This legislation reauthorizes and expands the Washington, D.C. Federal private school voucher pilot program, under which millions of Federal taxpayer dollars — $100M per year over the next five years — are funneled into a voucher system which favors private religious schools over public and charter schools.
More than 80 percent of students in the D.C. voucher program attend private religious schools, which, under this program, are allowed to discriminate in hiring and enrollment on the basis of religion.

First Amendment? What First Amendment?

Church-state separatists and proponents of religious liberty were up in arms.
“This legislation is a blatant violation of the separation of church and state,” said Sean Faircloth, executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. “The D.C. voucher program uses millions of American taxpayer dollars to fund the religious training of thousands of District students who attend private, religious institutions that do not offer students an op-out option and are exempt from federal civil rights laws.”
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize religious proselytizing and discrimination,” Faircloth continued. “We urge the U.S. Senate to reject this legislation on the grounds that it is unjust and unconstitutional.”
“Speaker Boehner says we’re broke and have to slash federal spending,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Yet, he’s willing to throw $20 million [per year] at religious and other private schools.”
Added Lynn, “This voucher scheme undermines public education and church-state separation.”
K. Hollyn Hollman, General Counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, explains why the BJC opposes vouchers. “While we affirm the right of parents to choose a religious education for their children, we oppose using public funds to support religion. Religious teachings should be funded by voluntary contributions, not through compulsory taxation. Voucher programs that provide tuition to religious schools violate the freedom of conscience of taxpayers who have the right to insist that the government remain neutral in matters of religion.”
Hollman continues with a related point which many organizations overlook. “In addition, government funding of religious education tends to jeopardize the autonomy of religious schools, bringing regulations or political pressures that threaten the schools’ religious character.”

Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?

Hollman points out another serious problem with the program. “[Both a GAO study and a private study mandated by Congress] found various problems and little evidence of improved education. Specifically, the studies found that the participants did not come from the schools that were most in need of improvement, many schools that accepted voucher students did not meet accreditation and other quality education standards, and student achievement did not show statistically significant improvement.”
Is Speaker Boehner thinking of the children, or the voting blocs?

Home Rule?

When the program was created in 2004, it had the support of DC’s Democratic leadership. Today, DC’s Democratic mayor, and its non-voting Delegate in the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, speak vehemently against extending the failed subsidy instead of directing funds to DC’s beleaguered public schools.
“Home rule means nothing if the District of Columbia can still be a dumping ground for every pet idea and pet project of the majority,” Norton said.
President Obama released a statement Tuesday strongly opposing the D.C. voucher program and urging Representatives to vote against it. The White House memo cited the Department of Education-commissioned study — indicating that minimal improvement in student performance had been observed with the program — as evidence that the program was a failure.
Obama stopped short of threatening a veto, suggesting his characteristic willingness to compromise.
The bill will now head to the U.S. Senate. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is a sponsor, which effectively ensures it will pass the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs . . . chaired by Lieberman. Whether it will pass the full Senate remains to be seen.

More Information: The Studies

Evaluation of the Impact of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report (2010)
This is the report commissioned by the Department of Education.
Full report (PDF)
Executive Summary (PDF)
From the Executive Summary:

There is no conclusive evidence that the OSP affected student achievement. On average, after at least four years students who were offered (or used) scholarships had reading and math test scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships (figure ES-2). The same pattern of results holds for students who applied from schools in need of improvement (SINI), the group Congress designated as the highest priority for the Program. Although some other subgroups of students appeared to have higher levels of reading achievement if they were offered or used a scholarship, those findings could be due to chance. They should be interpreted with caution since the results were no longer significant after applying a statistical test to account for multiple comparisons of treatment and control group members across the subgroups.

The program also did raise graduation rates among those who received scholarships by 12%, but their competencies (as noted above) did not improve. They merely didn’t drop out. (Speculation on my part — Because Mom and Dad were now paying partial tuition, and motivated to keep Junior in school?)
Also, the program raised parents’, but NOT students’ ratings of school safety and satisfaction.
The report also covers reasons why scholarships were not used. Primarily, they were not used because there was inadequate space at the preferred private school or the child was accepted in a (public) charter school.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM (GAO, 2007)
Full report (PDF, 98 pages)
Highlights (PDF, 1 page)
From the Highlights:

We found that WSF did not adhere to its own procedures for making scholarship payments, and WSF’s use of OSP funds to pay tuition for students attending schools that do not normally charge students tuition is not in accordance with the Act. Additionally, on the basis of a lack of documentation about whether before-and-after care included academic support, GAO was unable to determine if use of OSP funds to pay these fees was in accordance with the Act.
Despite recruitment efforts and efforts to inform parents of their choices, WSF faced challenges recruiting students from schools designated as in need of improvement, ensuring private school quality and placement opportunities, and providing parents with accurate information regarding private schools. Students who were offered scholarships generally reported income consistent with OSP’s financial eligibility standards, but, among students offered scholarships, students from schools in need of improvement were underrepresented relative to their presence in the population of District students. Although most private schools in the District officially participated in the program, the schools varied widely in the number of openings available to scholarship students, and few openings were available at the secondary level. The characteristics of participating schools varied, and some schools did not meet basic requirements to operate in the District, but the information WSF provided to parents to help them choose schools for children was not always complete and correct.

Emphasis added.
Note: WSF (Washington Scholarship Fund) was the vendor selected to operate the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program.
Related articles:

1. Taxpayer Tithes: House Speaker uses budget deal to fund religious schools with your tax dollars
2. Take Action: Tell Congress to stop Federal funding of religious schools
3. ACTION ALERT: Bill Seeks to Restore Voucher Scheme, Taxpayer Subsidy for Religious Schools
4. Americans United chastises U.S. House for vote in favor of $100 Million private school voucher scheme
5. D.C. school vouchers: President Obama urges House to vote no