[JPI] oppose school vouchers/action alert

[Cecelia Hawkins]

OPPOSE SCHOOL VOUCHERS FOR THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

(Reply to jpanet at ucc.org with information requests.)

President Bush and others are pushing for a $13 million school
voucher program that would pay private school tuition for 1,300 of
the 67,000 children in the District of Columbia. The voucher plan for
Washington, D.C. passed by only one vote in the House of
Representatives, against the wishes of a majority of both the D.C.
city council and the school board.

Like other privatization schemes, this proposed voucher program would
direct already scarce funding away from the majority to serve the
few. This legislation would also permit Washington, D.C.'s private
schools to receive public funds even though they would be allowed to
exclude students based on religion, gender, disability or limited
English proficiency.

In most places, school funding is primarily a state and local issue.
However, Congress establishes school funding policy for the District
of Columbia.  While proponents claim that vouchers would improve the
D.C. public schools through competition, it is likely instead that
the vouchers program will undermine the public schools.  The voucher
approach distracts attention from the pressing need to redress the
racial and economic injustices that cause achievement gaps among
public school students.  Providing adequate funds to support high
quality public schools is the only way our society can guarantee
excellent education as a civil right for all children.  Congress
should be held accountable for fully funding the programs it has
established to improve the public schools, where 90 percent of
America's children continue to be educated.

Contact your senators and urge them to oppose school vouchers for the
District of Columbia in the District of Columbia appropriations
bill.  Ask them to instead to meet the full funding mandates of the
No Child Left Behind Act.

To send a letter to your senators, log on to
http://www.ucctakeaction.org/action/index.asp

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