Opinion: Sinking vouchers

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It looks like the Washington D.C. school-voucher program is headed to a dark, though possibly justified, end. The omnibus appropriations bill in the house has language that would require the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to be reauthorized by Congress after the 2009-2010 school year, and under Democratic control that’s unlikely to happen.

The program provides close to 2,000 D.C. children with $7,500 a year so they can attend private school -- including Sidwell Friends, the school favored by presidents and currently attended by the Obama girls.

Despite the moans, largely from Republicans, about how unfair this is to poor children, research has found little benefit to students from the D.C. voucher program. If accountability counts, it probably deserves to disappear, especially since Michelle Rhee, the dynamic chancellor of the D.C. public schools, gives every sign that she will reinvigorate the district.