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Voucher program gets parental OK
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Washington, D.C. (Map, News) - Parents of D.C. students in the school-choice voucher program are generally satisfied with the voucher system yet increasingly on the prowl for more information about the private schools to which they're sending their children, according to a new report by Georgetown University researchers.
Unlike most reports about the school-choice vouchers, this one relies very little on numerical data and more heavily on personal interviews with families to get a sense of their overall experiences in the controversial program.
This is the third such analysis done by Georgetown's Public Policy Institute, as the District's voucher program enters its fourth of five trial years.
Run by the Washington Scholarship Fund, the program pays for students from low-income families to attend select private schools through federally-funded scholarships to offset the cost of tuition.
This year, participation in the voucher scholarship program is at its highest level ever, with nearly 2,000 students taking part, according to Washington Scholarship Fund officials.
Stephen Cornman, a former assistant research professor and co-author, said what he found most striking is that parents are becoming much more involved in their children's education and increasingly using this newfound knowledge to move their children between private schools to fit their liking.
"Parents have progressed from the time they entered the program and were very much concerned about characteristics in choosing a school," Cornman said. "The majority of parents interviewed have become much more actively involved in their child's life. Some even want to lobby for an extension of the voucher program."
Private schools, unlike public schools, aren't required to administer as many standardized tests to students under the No Child Left Behind Act. Because of that, certain parents involved said they find it difficult to ascertain how well the campuses are doing academically.
Cornman said for this reason they are pushing to have outside entities independently evaluate the private schools.
In a statement, Washington Scholarship Fund President Gregory Cork said he was encouraged that the concerns relayed in the survey focused less on the quality of the program and more on whether their child will be able to continue the scholarship.
"We hope that policy-makers would see the value in a program like this," he said.
