Hooray for Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, who has conditioned his (praiseworthy) support of D.C. voting rights in Congress on the extension of the city's federally-funded school voucher program.
This move will please no ideologues. Conservatives think the Constitution's framers meant for District of Columbia residents to be disenfranchised. And liberals think that any public support for private schools is anathema. And yes, there's some irony in conditioning voting rights on the continuation of a program that is opposed by D.C.'s??representative in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton.
But I quite suspect that this move pleases one key constituency: the 1,700 children receiving vouchers under the program, and their families. A ticket to a good school and full representation in Congress? Now that's change we can believe in.
Note: The Wall Street Journal editorial page has a great piece on the plight of the DC voucher program here.
