U.S. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., says the federal government paid for more than 1,700 District of Columbia students to attend private schools, but doesn’t know what schools many attended. The senator made the accusation about the federal voucher program at a hearing Sept. 16. The Washington Scholarship Fund declined to give Mr. Durbin information, so he asked the 49 participating schools how many voucher students they each had last year. All but five schools responded; the numbers added up to 1,334 students. Gregory M. Cork, the head of the fund, said he will give Mr. Durbin enrollment data and try to resolve the discrepancies in the numbers. –AP
A version of this article appeared in the September 23, 2009 edition of Education Week
