Norton Says Vouchers Study Shows Federal School Vouchers Have Failed (6/21/07)

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) issued the following statement on the report on D.C. vouchers issued by the Department of Education.

"The finding of no statistically significant differences in test scores between students who used federally funded vouchers and comparable District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) students confirms what researchers have found consistently in studying similar outcomes in voucher programs: that they do not improve the bottom line achievements of students. The irony is that the substitute I offered at the time to increase public charter schools as an alternative to DCPS apparently would have had a greater effect on achievement, according to recent reports finding charter school children doing better than DCPS students. D.C. parents have voted on this issue by forcing the city to dramatically increase charter schools as their preferred DCPS alternative.

"The Republican-led imposition of vouchers on the District of Columbia continues to stand in stark contrast to their unwillingness to even put a national vouchers bill on the floor. They have listened to their parents and constituents, and I have listened to mine.

"As part of education reform, vouchers are a bridge to nowhere. The American people have shown that they will never allow Congress to fund vouchers nationwide. Members so feared voting any money for private schools that the Republican majority inched out the D.C. vouchers bill by one vote, and then only by keeping the vote open 45 minutes, much longer than usual, while they could twist the arms of enough Republicans to change their votes. Who needs more of that?! Particularly today with school reform in D.C. in full swing, vouchers are a distraction and a misuse of funds that would be better used by DCPS and charter schools."