School voucher plan moves ahead in Congress, narrowly

WASHINGTON -- School-choice supporters hope they're halfway toward a landmark voucher plan for poor students, but critics pledge a fierce fight to keep public money out of private education.

In a 205-203 vote, the House endorsed private-school vouchers for poor District of Columbia students Friday, a plan likely to win final approval when the city's budget comes to a vote next week. The Senate will soon consider a similar plan to grant vouchers to a small share of students in the district, known for years of poor performance.

If approved by Congress, the district plan would be the first federally funded voucher program.

"Not many, if any, members of Congress ... have their children in D.C. public schools. Most are in private schools," said Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Calif. "And yet there are some who would deny poor children, poor families to have the same rights that members of Congress and other people who are affluent have."

The House measure would let at least 1,300 students switch to private schools, more if some students receive less than the maximum $7,500 a year. There are roughly 68,000 students in the district's school system.

Four Democrats joined 201 Republicans to support the voucher amendment, which authorized $10 million for the next budget year and unspecified sums for the next four years of the pilot project.

House Democrats said public money should be used to improve struggling schools, not to encourage people to leave them. They warned that the GOP-led House was just getting started.

"It's D.C. today. It's Chicago tomorrow, St. Louis, New Orleans, Los Angeles next week, then it's all of America," said Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill.

The last time proponents got this far in Congress, in 1997, the proposal stalled in the Senate after a veto threat from then-President Clinton. This time, proponents say the Senate may support the idea, and President Bush backs the plan.

Vouchers for one of the nation's most troubled districts could influence the choices of state leaders and further energize those on both sides of the issue. Six states offer some form of vouchers, but voters in other states have soundly rejected them.

"Sometimes vouchers don't get traction because they're not in places anyone pays attention to. But for Washington, D.C., to house a program of choices, that could have tremendous traction," said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. "We're closer than we've ever been."

House Democrats say they believe the amendment could be defeated when the budget bill comes up for a vote next Tuesday or in the Senate.

Meanwhile, parents, teachers, unions and education groups are intensifying their lobbying.

"When you've got the White House and the leadership of both houses of Congress pushing for it, it's definitely in play," said Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "And we are fighting it."

Since the Supreme Court deemed a Cleveland voucher case constitutional last year, only one state, Colorado, has added a voucher plan. With states in their worst financial shape in decades, their leaders are not inclined to earmark money for private schools, said Todd Ziebarth, policy analyst for the nonprofit Education Commission of the States.

Still, he said, to see the federal government create a D.C. voucher plan would give momentum to the proponents.

Bush and other Republicans dropped vouchers from consideration as part of a compromise version of the 2001 law that overhauled public education. The law does allow students in consistently underperforming school to transfer to another public school.

"Today's action represents not just the vision of the president and I, and a bipartisan Congress, but also the demands of Washington's local leaders who boldly challenged the status quo," Education Secretary Rod Paige said after the House vote.

The vouchers would not guarantee students admission to the schools of their choice.

The House bill is H.R. 2765.

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