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Press Release Published: Sep 8, 2009

Video Release: Put Kids First and Reauthorize the DC Voucher Program

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today released video of a rally that took place today in front of the Department of Education and a statement calling on Congress and the Obama Administration to reauthorize the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. In May, Issa, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon introduced a bill to continue funding the program (release), which has given thousands of underprivileged D.C. children educational opportunities but is set to expire at the end of the 2009-2010 school year:

“As President Obama welcomes America’s children back to school, he and Congressional Democrats continue their efforts to withhold real educational choice from the neediest students in their own back yard. The program has been a life-line for thousands of children ill-served by D.C.’s public school system and has been an important success embraced by parents, educators and community leaders. It is wrong that Congressional Democrats, beholden to iron-fisted teacher’s unions, are playing politics with the futures of so many kids in need of this opportunity.”

“As former D.C. Councilman Kevin Chavous noted today, real educational empowerment is the civil rights struggle of the 21st Century. President Obama and Congressional Democrats need to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Put away the lofty rhetoric and put kids first.”

View the video here.