D.C. Vouchers Resurrected in Budget Compromise

Obama had opposed continuing the program

By Michelle D. Anderson

Once left hanging by a thread, a federally funded voucher program for low-income students in the nation’s capital was revived in the budget compromise Congress approved earlier this month.

Restoring the controversial D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program , the first federally financed private-school-voucher program in the nation, was a key priority of U.S. Speaker of the House John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. He and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut who caucuses with the Democrats, had teamed up earlier this year to craft a bill to allow 1,700 students from the 45,000-student District of Columbia school system to take advantage of vouchers to defray tuition costs at private and religious schools. That bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in March, but had not yet been passed by the Senate when it was rolled into the last-minute budget legislation.

Launched in 2004, the $500 million program initially provided public school students with vouchers up to $7,500 for tuition, transportation, and other fees, but the new provisions allow for vouchers up to $12,000 for high school students and up to $8,000 for elementary...