Disappointing news from the Obama administration today. While the President's budget will include funding for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, it will formalize the Department's recent decision to not allow any new students to join. The proposal would permit all current students to continue in their private schools until they graduate from high school and remove the congressional language requiring program reauthorization before any more money can be spent.
For supporters of this program, this is just about as unfortunate a decision as could have been expected. The only worse alternative--defunding the program immediately and forcing existing participants out of their schools--would've been cruel and political untenable.
Assuming Congress approves the President's proposal, the program won't die immediately. ????It will just wither on the vine.
Let's not forget, a Department evaluation just found that program participants are learning more.