"I have begun to rethink public education, and I think we spend too much time supporting old structures and not enough time on what works for children," Good for her! The DC Teacher's Union will do everything they can to make sure it does not have good results.
Feinstein Will Endorse D.C. Vouchers
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 4, 2003; Page B01
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced yesterday that she will support a $13 million school voucher plan for the District, breaking a deadlock in a Senate committee and setting President Bush's school choice initiative on a clear path to passage barring a Democratic filibuster.
In an interview, Feinstein said she would break party ranks when the Senate Appropriations Committee meets today to vote on the measure and the District's $5.6 billion budget for fiscal 2004. The full House of Representatives has scheduled a vote tomorrow on a vouchers-only bill, which the legislation's sponsor, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), said yesterday he expected would pass.
The votes this week would pave the way for a five-year program providing federal grants of as much as $7,500 per student to subsidize private school tuition for at least 2,000 low-income children in the District. The Senate measure, unlike the $15 million House bill, also provides about $26 million in additional funding for the District's public schools, including charter schools.
Republican leaders expressed cautious optimism about the breakthrough and said they expected to work out differences between the House and Senate versions. Senate Democrats huddled over whether to carry out a threatened filibuster and tie up the District's budget.
"I will vote for it," Feinstein said yesterday of the D.C. voucher plan. The former San Francisco mayor, a longtime voucher foe, said she changed her position only in the case of the District's pilot program and does not support taxpayer-funded private school scholarships in California or elsewhere in the country.
"Washington, D.C., schools spend $10,800 per student, and there still is a very high rate of failure. I have begun to rethink public education, and I think we spend too much time supporting old structures and not enough time on what works for children," Feinstein said. "If we look at what works for children, we would probably agree that different models have to be provided, because what works for one child may not necessarily work for another."
Feinstein's announcement galvanized voucher supporters and deflated opponents as both sides were waging last-minute lobbying campaigns.
Voucher advocates said Feinstein's backing, coming on top of local Democratic support from D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams and D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7), would resonate nationally by showing how the movement for vouchers to attend private schools has broadened beyond libertarian groups and mostly white religious organizations.
Chip Mellor, president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice, a legal group that has defended voucher programs in courts across the country, said Feinstein's defection illustrates "the kind of ferment that was inevitable in the Democratic Party if they are ever going to honestly confront the issue of school choice."
Opponents vowed to carry on the fight, saying that tomorrow's House vote would be very close and that the outcome in the Senate remained in doubt because of Republicans wary of anti-voucher sentiment in their home states.
"It's deeply disappointing that Senator Feinstein has decided to support this D.C. voucher proposal," said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way. "It certainly makes our position harder. However, we believe there is strong, bipartisan opposition."
D.C. parents on both sides of the issue converged on the House yesterday to lobby lawmakers.
Feinstein said yesterday that Republicans, at her insistence, have agreed to make changes in the Senate bill that bar private schools participating in the voucher program from engaging in religious discrimination against students, while preserving the schools' ability to carry out religious missions consistent with the constitutional separation of church and state.
With Williams's blessing, Feinstein also included a provision allowing the mayor to share oversight of the program with the U.S. secretary of education while not extending such oversight to the D.C. Council. She said the bill also would include language requiring private schools to assess the academic performance of their voucher-funded students.
For Williams, passage of the voucher legislation would represent a significant victory for a cause he has championed in recent months. A product of Catholic schools, Williams last month traveled to Milwaukee and Cleveland to survey their voucher programs and received an award from the libertarian Cato Institute in recognition of his advocacy.
At the mayor's request, the pro-voucher American Education Reform Council on Tuesday launched a four-week television advertising campaign on local Washington broadcast stations and four cable news channels invoking his name in support of the voucher plan.
"I know this is a controversial issue," Williams said yesterday. "We're not saying this is something the entire country ought to do. But we are saying for the next five years, this is a useful initiative and experiment here in this city to complement the reforms that are already underway."
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