What's good for the students is bad for the teachers. And what's bad for the teachers is bad for the Democrats. Which is where we get this from:
Established in 2004 as a five-year pilot program, OSP is among the most heavily researched federal education programs in history.
OSP targeted about 2,000 of the poorest kids in DC who were stuck in some of the worst schools in the country. It gave their parents a $7,500 scholarship to attend a private school of their choice.
... Everyone knew OSP would be a bargain. DC has among the highest spending per pupil in the nation. At a conservative estimate of $17,542, the public schools spend over $10,000 more per child than the $7,500 spent through the scholarship program.
Not just the cost savings, but the program improved graduation rates significantly, as well as other measures of students' knowledge.
Simply put, OSP has a profoundly positive effect not just on students, but on the city and the country as a whole.
So when it came time for Congress to reauthorize OSP, it would seem to be a no-brainer: Expand the program.
Instead, they killed it.
But we can't complain. As Obama said, "in our democracy, government is us." So everything the government does is by definition approved by the people. Which means we must want this. We just didn't know it.
Comments