School Choice

The news recently has been that the President-Elect and his wife have decided to a send their two children to the exclusive Sidwell school in Washington D.C. The future first couple have acted prudently, in a manner not dissimilar to how the rest of the transition has been run. The children will undoubtedly receive a fine education and Sidwell seems well equipped to deal with the special needs that will arise regarding the daughters of the most powerful man in the world. One question though remains, if the Obamas recognise the superiority of private education, why then do they deny that choice to thousands in our nations capital and millions around the country by going against school choice vouchers. Vouchers  would allow parents to take the total or a large portion of what it costs for the state to educate their child and apply that money to a private institution. They are currently being tested in the capital, and for every one child who has applied for the program, three are denied. The average income of the families these children come from is 23,000 dollars. The state has failed these families, D.C. public schools rank at the bottom of  11 major city school systems. The same article notes that half of the children attend schools that are described as "persistently dangerous", and that the cost per pupil is among the highest among major cities at close to 13,000 dollars a year. That parents line up to receive a check for a little more then half of that is certainly telling. I may just be naive, but I can't see any reasonable argument for not extending this program across the country and giving the gift of hope and decent education to the most impoverished of our citizens. this would not only help to level the playing field between public and private education, the worst public schools would simply cease to exist, but it would give poorer families a far greater choice as to how their children are educated. Wouldn't that be change we could believe in?