Church Blog

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program is a federally funded program which has allowed over 3300 children from low-income families to attend private, including religious, schools in the District of Columbia since 2004.  Nearly 9000 families have applied to participate in DCOSP.  Unfortunately, since 2009, Congress and the Administration have not allowed new children, including siblings, to apply for scholarships.  Opponents of the program ignored the study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education that concluded that students who used their scholarships had a 91% graduation rate and that parental satisfaction and demand for the program were overwhelming.  Opponents have also ignored the aspects of the legislation that provided additional funding for D.C. regular and charter schools as part of a three-sector approach to improving educational opportunities for children in the District of Columbia.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, a long-time supporter of this program, has introduced H.R. 471, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (SOAR) to reauthorize the program so that new students can receive scholarships.  The bill continues the three-sector approach by authorizing $60 million to be evenly divided for use by private school families, regular public schools and public charter schools.   A companion bill, S. 206 has been introduced by Senator Joseph Lieberman in the Senate.

On March 10, 2011, H.R. 471 was passed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by a vote of 21-14.  Current information is that the full House of Representatives will consider the vote during the week of March 28th.

Please contact your member in the House of Representatives and let her/him know that you support the reauthorization of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.