Norton Cites Little Known Charter School Gains at Vouchers Hearing
Norton Cites Little Known Charter School Gains at Vouchers Hearing
March 1, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released her opening statement from a hearing on H.R. 471, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act, to create a new private school voucher program in the District. Norton quoted from the June 2010 Department of Education Final Report on the voucher program, which found "no conclusive evidence that the Opportunity Scholarship Program affected student achievement, as measured by standardized reading and math tests." By contrast, she cited data that show that the city's public charter middle and high schools that had a majority of economically disadvantaged students score almost twice as high as their peers in the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) in reading and math, and have a graduation rate 24% higher than the DCPS students rate and 8% higher than the national average. She said that, particularly considering long waiting lists, the city's public charter schools should be rewarded with any new available funding for their work in building a model public school alternative to DCPS, which almost half of the city's students attend.
Norton's full statement is below.
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Statement of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on H.R. 471, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act
I appreciate my good conversation with Chairman Gowdy yesterday when I learned that the Chairman had not received two requests I left with his office on Friday to call me after Mayor Vincent Gray was denied the courtesy that has always been given to the mayor of the District of Columbia, whatever party controlled the Congress, and, for that matter, to most busy highly placed public officials whose time is charged to taxpayers. I also learned that Chairman Goudy did not make the decision concerning Mayor Gray. What was gained by denying the Mayor's two separate attempts to get small changes that would have enabled him to testify here today except to make it impossible for him to testify as a minority witness against the bill before us, or, if he did testify, to try to humiliate him and to disrespect his office. Instead of the courtesy of a routine accommodation by being placed early enough to be heard, the Mayor was offered the option of being the last witness on a panel with his constituents with no guarantee that he could be heard early enough to get back to urgent city business he had offered to push back for a reasonable time period. In 20 years of service in the Congress I have never seen any highly placed public official treated so shabbily. The discourteous response to our Mayor's request was inconsistent with past practice of this Committee and its subcommittees. It was offensive, petty, and beneath the dignity of any Committee of the Congress. I knew that this response could not have come from our new Chairman. At Chairman Gowdy's request, I took him to Mayor Gray's office just two weeks ago and he and the Mayor had a very cordial meeting. Considering Mayor Gray's respect for Chairman Gowdy, I know that the Mayor wants to put this matter behind him so that he can continue the cordial relationship that began when Chairman Gowdy visited the Mayor in his office. I ask unanimous consent that Mayor Gray's testimony be entered into the record of today's hearing.
I want to be clear that my remarks today are addressed to my colleagues, not to my constituents, who desire a better education. I too, am a mother and I cannot blame any parent for taking advantage of any educational opportunity that comes your way.
Although I am a proud graduate of the D.C. public schools and strongly support our public schools, I have always supported public charter school alternatives for those parents who are dissatisfied with our traditional public schools. Children cannot wait until public schools, now in the throes of a "Race to the Top," meet the necessary standards. This is true even though D.C. public schools have made impressive strides by any measure. For example, notwithstanding the many improvements the D.C. public schools still must make, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which recently measured math progress in the nation's public schools, found the D.C. public schools to be the only schools in the nation to improve average math scores at both 4th and 8th grade levels by at least 5 points.
However, The Department of Education's Final Report on the Opportunity Scholarship Program, did not report the results we are seeing in the District's chosen alternatives to our traditional public schools, our public charter schools. The Department of Education's report found "no conclusive evidence that the Opportunity Scholarship Program affected student achievement, as measured by standardized reading and math tests." Yet this program was established precisely to measure the difference between the academic performance of students in the lowest achieving public schools and those in private schools in the program. Unlike the private schools, our public charter middle and high schools with a majority of economically disadvantaged students scored almost twice as high as their D.C. public school counterparts in math and reading and the graduation rates of charter schools is 24% higher than the graduation rate of the public high schools and 8% higher than the nationwide rate.
Yet our public charter schools have a significantly higher percentage of African Americans and of disadvantaged children then our D.C. public schools. Of particular importance, unlike our private schools, D.C. public charter schools are fully accountable to the public in measures of performance and in every activity. Both public and public charter schools can and have been closed when acceptable standards are not met.
D.C. public charter schools on average have a remarkable record but they are quick to concede that not all of them meet high standards. However, with this record of the District's own public charter schools, not a couple of thousands students, but for almost 28,000 students, why would Congress target the District of Columbia for private school vouchers? Moreover, the continuing focus on private school vouchers exclusively for the District of Columbia comes despite a compromise that allows every D.C. student now in the program to be funded until graduation from high school. That compromise in turn followed a prior compromise to extend the program two years beyond its authorized five year cutoff date.
What is before us today is the start-up of a brand new program for new children, and again only in the District of Columbia. The single minded focus on public funding of private schools only in the District raises many questions. If my Republican colleagues believe private school vouchers are so important, why haven't they used the experiment in the District to offer a national bill on the floor allowing school districts that might chose vouchers? Could it be that the majority is influenced by state referenda on vouchers, all of which have been lost by voucher proponents? Could it be that the Republican majority has read the national polls showing that the American people overwhelmingly oppose public funding of private schools?
If the Republican majority is truly concerned about alternatives to public education, why are they not expanding funding for public charter schools, which has large congressional bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate? The inescapable conclusion is that the Republicans believe they can indulge their personal and ideological preferences with impunity here in the District, a risk they are unwilling to take in their own districts with private school vouchers.
The Republicans did not consult the District's elected officials before introducing a bill to start up a new voucher program. Yet, the desperate budget situation in the District has put most in the Council in the position of reversing their position against vouchers that they previously took in letters to me when D.C. residents mounted one of the largest protests during my service in Congress to keep Congress from imposing vouchers on the city. Today, however, some D.C. public officials are all too aware that a private school voucher program would relieve the District budget and perhaps continue funds for public and public charter schools. They can hardly be blamed for their change of mind. They certainly know that it would do little good to lobby the Republican House for any new funding for the home rule choice of our parents for independent public charter school alternatives.
That however, is exactly what former Speaker Newt Gingrich did. When he first mentioned private school vouchers to me, I told him of public opposition to vouchers in the city but not to public charter schools, as demonstrated by a fledging charter school law in the District that had attracted a few charters. The result was P.L. 104-134, which included the School Reform Act of 1995, that has produced what amounts to a large scale, robust alternative public school system that has become a model for the nation, with almost half our children in attendance. The long waiting lists of our public charter schools are the best evidence of their quality and their embrace by our parents and residents as the city's own home rule choice.
Our public charter schools are where both the need and the demand are. Why then set up a congressionally sponsored private school program for the city? Why when ours is the only big city with both rapidly improving public schools and a model alternative public charter school system? Why, when this city is one of the few jurisdictions in the nation that has no barriers to public school alternatives? Why isn't the District of Columbia being rewarded with funding to continue to build the city's public charter schools and to respond to the waiting lists of parents wanting to enroll their students?
The answer, of course, is power. The same congressional power that stripped the city of its vote, on the first day of the session and that also seeks to re-impose anti-democratic amendments on the city in the pending appropriations bills. It is time that this power respected D.C. democracy. We appreciate congressional interest in our children. We ask only for congressional respect for the people of the District of Columbia, who have built their own alternative to our public schools. Any new funding for education in the District should reinforce the hard work of our own parents and residents who have shown the nation that they know how to build a popular alternative public school system with a dazzling variety of public charter schools. From the nationally renowned KIPP schools to Hospitality High, from the Latin School Charter and the SEED residential charter school. D.C. residents know what to do without the benefit of congressional paternalism, instruction or intervention.