The Voucher Revival

The Voucher Revival

The Voucher Revival

Conservative efforts to bring vouchers back to the District just highlight how much such programs have fallen out of favor. Michelle Rhee, a former D.C. public schools chancellor, and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) In the last-minute horse-trading and compromising before reaching a budget deal, House Speaker John Boehner won from Democrats a small, weird concession: the renewal and expansion of the District of Columbia's school voucher program. Known as the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, it was the first federally-funded voucher system. Congress ran it from 2004 until 2009, when the Obama administration began to wind it down. The District -- already the epicenter of aggressive school reform measures -- woke up last Saturday morning and found that its old voucher program had returned. For years, conservatives preached the virtues of vouchers programs as a solution to the country's ailing education system (D.C.'s program always played a