“I’m from the state of Ohio, so I think I look at things a little differently because most of our charter schools are not public charter schools. So, you may hear me coming from a very different vantage point.”
- Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio)
(Just one of the headscratchers from last week’s House Education and Labor Committee hearing on charters.)
(Watch Wednesday’s Senate hearing on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program by clicking on the image to the right.)
The views, opinions and data of a varied group of six were shared on and off with six US Senators today about why the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program should continue.
When he began, the Committee Chair, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) took time to communicate his dismay that invited opponents of the OSP did not participate. While their views were papered all over the hearing room in lengthy memos and letters with officious sounding names like The National Coalition for Public Education (and filled with dozens of real and shell groups purporting to support all matters ranging from Judaism to feminism, to parentism, to agnosticism!), “not a single one of the six groups opposed to this program accepted our invitation,” offered Lieberman. “I say that with regret, because we wanted to hear both sides.”
Latasha Bennett, a single mother of two, teed off her testimony with a compelling argument about the tragedies faced by her own family, and the violence still present in the public school her kids would attend were it not for the scholarship. Her young daughter will not enter Kindergarten until next year, but has been able to attend the Naylor Road Annex for pre-school thanks to a Department of Housing Services voucher she receives.
Wait, did she say her Pre-K-er gets a voucher? That’s right, we often forget that most cities indeed offer vouchers for childcare and Pre-K, subsidized by the government. In fact, DC also offers housing vouchers, and job training vouchers. Oh, and our citizens can have babies - with federal funding - at religious hospitals. But I digress…
More “Notes from The Hill: Wednesday’s OSP Hearing”
It appears to be a whirlwind courtship for Arne Duncan. He and the HELP Committee were feeling the love yesterday morning on Capitol Hill. Like a starry-eyed first date complete with compliments, vacuous banter and awkward laughter, Senators and Nominee danced around issues and came to no conclusions deeper than the fact that they really, really like one another.
Click on the image below to watch for yourself:
