| 5/19/2009 6:51:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Ronald Holassie, a sophomore at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, testifies at a hearing on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program on Capitol Hill in Washington May 13. Former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams is in the background at left. Holassie, who serves as the District's deputy youth mayor for legislative affairs, said that receiving an Opportunity Scholarship to attend Carroll "absolutely changed me as a person." |
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At Senate hearing, Archbishop Carroll students testify in support of D.C. Opportunity Scholarships
During a Senate committee hearing on May 13, two students from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington delivered firsthand testimony to legislators about the importance of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program that would slowly die if President Barack Obama's budget proposal is passed.
Ronald Holassie, a Carroll sophomore and the District's deputy youth mayor for legislative affairs, said D.C. public schools are not adequate for students right now.
"They didn't get bad over night, and they are not going to get better over night," so students need Opportunity Scholarships in the meantime, said Holassie, an Opportunity Scholarship recipient.
Holassie told the senators that at Archbishop Carroll he finds "more expectations, higher academic expectations. Teachers really want me to succeed. I didn't get that motivation in public schools. I feel that having Opportunity Scholarships absolutely changed me as a person. We need Opportunity Scholarships for children in D.C."
Tiffany Dunston, the valedictorian of Archbishop Carroll's class of 2008 who just completed her first year at Syracuse University in New York, told legislators she was the first member of her family to attend college. She attended Archbishop Carroll with the help of an Opportunity Scholarship.
"You have the ability to give other D.C. children the opportunity I had. My education gave me the chance at a successful future. Please don't end a program that worked for me and is benefiting tons of other children. Three years from now, I'll be walking across a stage receiving my college diploma. Without the Opportunity Scholarship Program, none of this would have been possible," she said.
Dunston grew up in Southeast Washington, an area of the city affected by poverty and a high crime rate. She said her biggest motivation to succeed was her cousin, James Dunston, who was shot and killed at age 17.
"My cousin was going to be the first college graduate in my family, but he died before he was given that opportunity. Now I'm trying to step in his shoes and finish what he started ... To my family and to myself, I am a representation of what he could have done for my family and community. Through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, I was afforded the opportunity to do just that," she said.
The Opportunity Scholarships were approved as a pilot federal program five years ago as part of a bipartisan effort to expand educational opportunities in the city for children attending public, charter and private schools. The program includes $14 million for annual scholarships so low-income children can attend the school of their choice. Currently, 1,700 children in the city's poorest neighborhoods receive the scholarships worth up to $7,500 annually, with about one-half of them attending Catholic schools in the city. The Archdiocese of Washington and participating Catholic schools subsidize the remaining tuition costs of those students attending Catholic schools.
The program's future became jeopardized after Congress voted to cut funding in March. Congress voted to authorize funding for the 2009-10 school year, with the stipulation that for the program to be continued after that, it would have to be reauthorized by both Congress and the D.C. City Council. Last week, President Barack Obama proposed more funding for students who are already in the program, but not for new students to receive Opportunity Scholarships.
A statement from the Archdiocese of Washington noted that the president's plan "would mean the slow death of a successful program that is helping move children in our nation's capital out of poverty." The archdiocese urged "permanent, full funding of the program for those already enrolled and to provide the same educational opportunity to all low-income students in the District."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Independent Democrat from Connecticut, said although supporters of the program packed the room and filled the witness tables, no less than six opponents of the program declined his invitation to testify. The hearing was held in the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs that supervises some District matters. Lieberman, who is a supporter of the scholarship program, is chairman of the committee. Sen. Susan Collins (R- ME), who also supports the program, is the ranking member of the committee.
Two opponents of the program - both teachers' unions - the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association - did not participate in the hearing. Lieberman also invited several local officials, including D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D - Ward 7), D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. None of them attended the hearing.
Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) said the program's opponents did not "have the guts to look you (supporters of the program) in the eye."
Ronald Jackson, the executive director of the D.C. Catholic Conference, said he was disappointed the opposition did not testify.
"Those who oppose this should have come forward and said why they oppose it," he said.
Others who testified in support of the program included Bruce Stewart, the head of Sidwell Friends School; Patrick Wolf, the principal investigator of a congressionally mandated three year impact evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program; and former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.
Wolf said the U.S. Department of Education study found that after three years there was a statistically significant positive impact on reading test scores of Opportunity Scholarship students. The scores are equivalent to about 3.1 months of additional learning. Wolf added that more time for research could show that students perform better the longer they remain in the program. The time it takes for students to adjust to radically different expectations and a different learning environment plays a part in how they are progressing, Wolf noted.
Latasha Bennett, another witness, is the parent of two children - a second grade Opportunity Scholarship student who attends Naylor Road School in Washington and a 4-year-old daughter who had hoped to attend school with her brother. Although Bennett said her daughter was initially approved to receive an Opportunity Scholarship, she was sent a retraction letter soon afterward.
"I was devastated and angry," she said. " ...Why is she being denied the opportunity to attend a great school, the same school as her brother?"
Virginia Walden Ford, the executive director of DC Parents for School Choice, said she was "very encouraged" by the hearing and the number of parents who came on short notice.
"There is no reason this program should not be continued," she said.
The morning of the hearing, Archbishop Donald Wuerl said in a statement, "It is difficult to envision what political advantage would outweigh - in the scale of human lives - these young people, their future and their hope. In making political choices, the faces, futures and the hopes of these kids must come first."
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