The C-O-N of the O-S-P

In this speech before students designated as 2007 Presidential Scholars on Monday (one which was ripe with his idiotic attempts at humor, making jokes about his lack of education which, sadly, are thoroughly grounded in reality), Dubya reminded everyone about the following…

We did something else interesting, and I look forward to working with Congress on this -- and I must confess, it's slightly controversial -- and that is, is that we promoted the first federally funded Opportunity Scholarship Program here in Washington, D.C. It basically said to low-income parents that here's some money to help you send your child to a private school or a parochial school, your choice. In other words, it said, if you're tired of being in a system that simply hasn't met expectations, that there ought to be something different, and that I believe that -- I think it's the role of government to help low-income parents have different options.

The program is working. It's over-subscribed. I mean, there are thousands of families that have been helped through this Washington, D.C. program, which ought to say to policymakers, there's a huge demand for something better. People are sick of mediocrity in the status quo. Obviously, it hasn't happened with these kids, for which we're grateful. But there's still too many schools that just aren't meeting expectations. And so I look forward to working to see if we can't expand this kind of program.

“Thousands,” Dubya? Try 1,800 enrolled in non-public schools through the OSP for the 2006-2007 school year (noted here), which, if not over at this point, must be winding to a close.

Also (as noted here)…

(An) evaluation (by the Manhattan Institute) finds that the OSP had no academic effect, positive or negative, on the District's public schools after its first year. Other studies tend to indicate school choice programs have helped to improve public school performance.

As noted here, the OSP was initiated as part of the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act passed by Congress in 2003; this five-year pilot program was part of the omnibus spending bill passed in 2004 and became the first voucher program to be overseen by the U.S. Department of Education.

I know there are families that have been helped by the OSP, but the fact is that we’re talking about 1,800 students out of a school district of approximately 70,000, as noted in the Georgetown study.

And state OSP programs have run into legal challenges, such as the one noted here in Florida. This is because when all is said and done and we’ve dispensed with the shiny, happy rhetoric, OSPs are voucher/school choice programs whose stated goal is to encourage all students in this country to attend private schools and, in the process, let our public schools wither on the vine, so to speak, and die.

And if you want proof regarding what I just said, all you have to do is wade through this comprehensive report assembled by George Miller, senior Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. You could spend all day reading about how this administration has short changed education in this country.

As for the scholars Dubya met with on Monday, kudos in particular to Mari Oye of Wellesley, Massachusetts who, according to MoDo in her Times Select column here today, “slipped him a handwritten letter pleading with him not to let America become known for torture and urging him to stick to the Geneva Conventions with terror detainees” (and kudos also to all 50 students who signed the letter - and speaking of opposing torture, please give this a look).