D.C. Parents for School Choice: Obama Betrays Low-Income Families on Education

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama -- who received private scholarships to attend elite private schools and who exercises private school choice as a parent -- is now officially on the record opposing educational opportunities for low-income D.C. students who live just blocks from the White House, the Administration revealed tonight.

The advocacy group D.C. Parents for School Choice tonight sharply criticized the Administration's last-minute decision to issue a "Statement of Administration Policy" opposing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The group said that the Obama Administration's strongly-worded opposition to the highly-effective school voucher program is clear proof that the president -- who just last year said he would have had to "maneuver" to find a quality D.C. public school for his own daughters -- sides with richly-funded special interest groups, like the National Education Association union and the ACLU, over the needs of poor families.  

"The president cannot claim to be an education reformer while rejecting a program that raises graduation rates, increases parental satisfaction, and boosts reading achievement," said Virginia Walden Ford, executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice. "How can President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan oppose a program that has overwhelmingly benefited low-income, largely African American families in the District of Columbia?"

D.C. Parents for School Choice called on Congress to pass Speaker John Boehner's SOAR Act, which would restore and expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. More than 74 percent of D.C. residents support the program, which yields a 91 percent graduation rate for students who use their scholarships.

"The Obama Administration says that we cannot embrace school vouchers because we cannot save each and every child with them," Walden Ford said. "Can you imagine how freedom fighters and civil rights leaders like Harriet Tubman would have reacted to that defeatist sentiment?"

For more information, visit www.SaveSchoolChoice.com

SOURCE D.C. Parents for School Choice

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