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Saturday, July 15, 2017

Trump wants to spend millions more on school vouchers. But what’s happened to the millions already spent? - The Washington Post

Trump wants to spend millions more on school vouchers. But what’s happened to the millions already spent? - The Washington Post:

Trump wants to spend millions more on school vouchers. But what’s happened to the millions already spent?




Congress dedicates $15 million a year to a program that helps low-income D.C. students pay tuition at private schools, but it’s impossible for taxpayers to find out where their money goes: The administrator of the D.C. voucher program refuses to say how many students attend each school or how many public dollars they receive.
It’s also not clear how students are performing in each school. When Congress created the program in 2004, it did not require individual private schools to disclose anything about student performance. And private schools can continue receiving voucher dollars no matter how poorly their students fare.
President Trump has said the D.C. voucher program is “what winning for young children and kids from all over the country looks like,” and he has freed up millions of dollars in federal funds to expand it, allowing nearly triple the number of students to participate by next school year.
He and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have also pledged to expand private-school choice programs across the country, many of which now make it difficult to track how tax dollars are Trump wants to spend millions more on school vouchers. But what’s happened to the millions already spent? - The Washington Post: