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Opening
Statement of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Full Government Reform Committee Hearing
D.C.
Parental Choice Incentive Act of 2003
June 24,
2003
We have
before us a very slim vouchers only bill. It must disappoint D.C.
officials considering what they desired and even the great expectations
that have been stated or raised--in exchange for accepting vouchers, a
takeover by the federal government of all or most of $255 million in
special education funding, as D.C. Council Education Chair Kevin Chavous
told me and his Council colleagues, or many millions in assistance for
city operations as the Mayor indicated that he hoped for at a meeting.
Putting aside these clearly unreachable heights, Mayor Williams deserves
credit for responding to the concerns of a citywide coalition of parents
and educators who want some new funds for public and charter schools.
Our compassionate. Cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, while of course wanting
vouchers for his Catholic schools, yesterday said in a statement, "as
Archbishop of Washington, I have always believed that a stand-alone
voucher bill will not adequately care for the educational needs of all of
our city's children. We will only support legislation that helps all
families in our city, including those with children at public
schools." The Cardinal, whose schools most of these children would
attend, does not support
H.R. 2558. Nor
should anyone else.
I have been a strong supporter of our Catholic schools and am grateful
that so many of them still remain open in this and other big cities. I
have also strongly supported the Washington Scholarship Fund, which has
put its money where its proverbial mouth is by raising private funds for
scholarships to send our children to private schools. I have visited our
children in the Catholic schools that have accepted Washington Scholarship
students and spoken at their graduations. As many Catholic school parents
who pay full tuition at our Catholic elementary and secondary schools will
attest, I am fond of telling them that I and other D.C. residents owe them
twice over. They have remained in D.C. when many have fled to the suburbs
for better schools and they pay our considerable taxes plus tuition at
private schools.
Cardinal McCarrick knows he and I disagree on vouchers, but he is a much
respected and admired friend. Particularly at a time when both the
District and the federal government have cut our public schools, he
knows that it is wrong for the federal government to fund private
schools without including publicly accountable schools that qualify
under the language of the President's budget.
Yet the bill before us has shrunk incredibly even before it was
introduced. It began at $30 million for vouchers only, cut in half now
to $15 million for vouchers only, while those who will actually decide
the amount in the Appropriation Committee have approved only $10
million. No one on an authorizing committee is in a position to
guarantee funding, much less additional funds. The single focus of this
bill on vouchers comes as no surprise from a Majority that has been bent
on imposing vouchers on the District for years, always over the
objections of the majority of District officials, whose resolutions have
opposed vouchers even using additional federal funds.
The most serious problem with the proposed vouchers has yet to be
discussed or
to be taken seriously. Our traditional public and charter schools will be hit hard
financially if the predicted 2,000 students exit in the fall. Our public
schools will lose a combination of $12,557 per pupil in both DC and
federal funds because every school system must be funded on a per pupil
basis. That would be a blow DC public school funding cannot afford
today.
The argument may be made that any price should be paid, even one at the
expense of our public schools to allow a few children to go because DC
children will perform better in private schools than in DC schools. I
noted, however, that unlike many vouchers advocates, the Cardinal made
no such claim in his statement. However vouchers advocates, including
Secretary Paige's testimony today, often cite the performance of our
children in the DC Public Schools as the reason they must go to private
schools, as if this change would improve their performance. Even the
pro-voucher study the Secretary cites at page 5 of his testimony that
shows two years of gains for D.C. children using privately funded
vouchers goes on to show that those gains disappeared in the third
year. More seriously only 29 percent of the children remained in those
schools at the end of the third year.
I do not cite these results to show that our private schools are a
failure. Nor does the 10-year GAO study of public and privately funded
voucher programs that found no evidence of test gains for children in
private over public schools. The hyperbole needs to stop because it
cheapens the serious story of why so many of these children do poorly
and what needs to be done. Claims about the District, such as found in
the Davis press release on this bill that "current spending per
pupil excludes all but a handful of school districts in the
country," are refuted by the numbers. I ask permission to insert
this evidence in the record.
Such comparisons don't even touch the intractable causes of the problems
many of our children face. In this city the average kid comes from a
poor or modest single parent home, and huge numbers bring problems to
school that ordinary services in either public or private schools have not overcome. The best hope for low
income children are not vouchers. The transformation schools that
surround these children and their parents with city services, including
tutoring for the children and special services for the parents are the
closest thing to a breakthrough we have achieved. All 15 transformation
schools have improved their Stanford 9 scores. The extra services these
children get are available in none of the other D.C. public or private
schools. These are our poorest children often with the least motivated
parents. The least any bill should do is to encourage and fund the
improvements we see for the first time in these children.
Tonight I am hosting a town meeting for a hearing by the 10-member
Commission on Black Men and Boys I established a few years ago. It is
part of work I began 30 years ago when the Moynihan report had made it
difficult for too many to talk about the deterioration of the
African-American family. Although the black community has long since
found its voice on the problems of family life, the downward spiral of
children without fathers and often without the mothers they deserve has
continued. Family dissolution has had devastating effects on our
children and is at the root of virtually every problem of the black
community. While doing much more to strengthen black family life our
major recourse today lies with publicly accountable schools.
The District is seldom ahead of the rest of the country. Its
transformation schools have achieved an important breakthrough in test
scores and all-important parental involvement. Parents are literally
clamoring to get their kids into our 42 charter schools. For creating a
virtual alternative system to the D.C. public schools, H.R. 2558 should
reward the city with desperately needed funds for its publicly
accountable schools, not exclude them.
Back to top of page
For Immediate Release
June 23, 2003 |
Contact: Doxie A. McCoy
(202) 225-8050, (202)225-8143-cell |
VOUCHERS-ONLY BILL WILL COST D.C. MONEY, LEAVING D.C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS
BEHIND
Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today
that money for D.C. charter and transformation schools was becoming an
incredibly shrinking promise with the slim voucher-only bill to be
introduced by Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) today. At the highest end, Council
Member Kevin Chavous initially said he would accept vouchers only if all
or most of D.C. special education (S255,117,711) was federally funded. The
original Davis bill had $30 million for vouchers only, now cut in half to
$15 million for vouchers only; but there is only $10 million provided for
vouchers in House appropriations. Norton said that even higher amounts
still speculated for a combination of vouchers and public schools would
leave little impact divided three ways.
"The last thing Congress should be doing this year when both the
District and the federal governments have severely cut public schools is
to send money elsewhere that could be used for our underfunded publicly
accountable schools," Norton said. "The District has done
exactly what Congress asked in establishing flourishing and extremely
popular alternatives to the traditional public schools and exactly what
the No Child Left Behind law requires in pulling low performing
transformation schools outside the system for special treatment and
increased resources, with excellent results. Instead of being rewarded for
being ahead of the rest of the country, the District is getting a
vouchers-only bill, that has serious unintended, negative consequences for
D.C. public schools."
Norton said that the most serious effect of the bill has not been
discussed. If the vouchers bill takes a predicted 2,000 students out of
the D.C. public schools at one time, the city's public and charter schools
will take a big blow next year. Public schools will lose both District and
federal funds because schools are funded on a per pupil basis. She said
that results on the use of vouchers in D.C. were already in. Children
using privately funded vouchers here showed no improvement after three
years. Norton said that she was even more concerned at the suitability of
the private schools for D.C. children because only 29% of these children
remained in private schools after three years.
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