Giving Compass' Take:

• Author Lindsay Burke writing for the Heritage Foundation examines the success of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program when it started in 2004 to present day, evaluating what needs to happen to make it even more effective and sustainable.  

• What are the benefits of the scholarship? What are the caveats? 

• Read more about the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program with regard to test scores and graduation rates. 

Impassioned parents had decided they could no longer let their children drown in the tide of mediocrity endemic in the government education system.

Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, they rallied, protested, and engaged with members of Congress. There were setbacks, such as President Clinton’s veto of a 1998 bill that would have created a scholarship option for District students. But the parents persisted.

And in 2004, they won a major victory. That’s when the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was signed into law, creating scholarships for children from low-income families living in the District to attend any private school of their choice.

In evaluation of the program, published by the Department of Education, found that participating students graduated at a rate 21 percentage points higher than their peers who applied for, but did not receive, a scholarship.

Participants have not yet demonstrated significant improvements in test scores outcomes for participants, but there are indications that the program has the potential to have even more meaningful, long-term effects on students’ future academic attainment and other positive life outcomes. Moreover, parents and students are significantly more likely to feel that they have access to safe schools as a result of the program.

Incredibly, in 2018, little has changed.  Despite the program’s success in empowering poor parents to find safe and effective schools that are the right fit for their children, its future is uncertain. Funding remains a political football. And student eligibility rules undercut the program’s ability to serve more students.

In order to expand and strengthen the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, scholarships should be funded through a process similar to District public and charter schools’ formula and based on student needs (such as higher amounts for children with special needs).

Read the full article about D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program by Lindsey Burke at The Heritage Foundation