D.C. voucher plan draws instant fire

[Judi Lynn]

D.C. voucher plan draws instant fire
2 hours, 1 minute ago


By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Opponents of the nation's first federally funded school voucher plan say they will try to strip taxpayer money from the $13 million program, approved by the Senate as part of a larger funding bill.

"This battle is far from over," Sen. Edward Kennedy D-Mass., said after lawmakers on Thursday approved vouchers for the struggling public schools in the District of Columbia. He expects Democratic lawmakers to introduce an amendment to the bill.

The D.C. voucher program would give as much as $7,500 each to about 1,700 low-income D.C. students to attend the private or religious schools of their choice. The House of Representatives approved the plan late last year by a single vote after several opponents, including Reps. Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich left to attend a Democratic presidential debate in Baltimore.

Opponents say they're confident a second vote will sink the voucher proposal.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=676&e=7&u=/usatoday/20040126/ts_usatoday/dcvoucherplandrawsinstantfire

[La_Serpiente]

1. Anyone from D.C.?

I heard they might recall the mayor. What is going on there?

[spooky3]

2. The schools are very bad even though $ per student are among the

highest in the nation. The voucher plan was probably sincerely believed by some to be an appropriate response to years of failure to improve the public system, but as most of us probably believe, it really doesn't address the problem and has other problems itself.

The mayor is still pretty popular, because he has done other things well, but he's made some mistakes and the previous mayor was corrupt and disastrously inept, so he left Williams with a giant mess. I would think the recall would fail.