Over at the Fordham’s Flypaper, Mike Petrilli, posts the letter from the U.S. Department of Education informing 200 families that had been awarded scholarships under the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, that the Department had decided NOT to admit anymore children to the program this fall.
Here’s the opening paragraph:
We deeply regret the confusion over whether or not your child would receive a scholarship through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Please know that we understand and sympathize with the uncertainty that you and your family may have faced over the past few months, and we are committed to doing everything possible to help ensure that your child is in a safe school environment that offers strengthened academic programs.
Mike Petrilli offers what the US DOE should have said if they were being honest:
Because Democrats in Congress have voted to rescind funding for this program after next school year (despite the fact that a recent evaluation shows it to be a success, a rarity for federal initiatives), we have unilaterally decided to rescind your child’s scholarship effective immediately. Taking a cue from Congressional Democrats, we are superimposing our judgment about what is best for your child for your own judgment. Have a nice day.
See the Washington Post on taking vouchers from children here.
Dr. Jay P. Greene has much more here.
Now in the more than ironic department, back at the US Department of Education, Secretary Arne Duncan is threatening innocent school children with the prospect of public school six days a week and eleven months a year. As Joanne Jacobs notes in Endless School,
“Go ahead and boo me,” Duncan told about 400 middle and high school students at a public school in northeast Denver. “I fundamentally think that our school day is too short, our school week is too short and our school year is too short.”
“You’re competing for jobs with kids from India and China. I think schools should be open six, seven days a week; eleven, twelve months a year,” he said.
In other words, your school may be bad, and we may not let you go to a higher-performing school, but we will keep you in your current low-performing school longer and at a larger expense to the taxpayer.