WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) The coalition to save the endangered D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) today laid out a clear and simple choice for Members of Congress: you can either side with D.C.’s low income children or side with the special interests who seek to deny those children the educational options they deserve. This unambiguous line of demarcation—unveiled today in a new $250,000 television and newspaper advertising campaign (“Whose Side Are They On”)—was set after Congressional leaders and President Obama continue to mislead the public and the media and claim they’re “saving” the OSP while refusing to let additional students benefit from the program.
“It’s time for Congress and President Obama to take sides,” said Virginia Walden Ford, executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, which sponsored the campaign. “The people of the District of Columbia are tired of political doublespeak. We want the Opportunity Scholarship Program saved, and saving it means providing entry to siblings and the additional low-income families who are desperate to gain access.”
In a hard-hitting new television ad, the coalition asks why President Obama, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) are ending the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program by denying entry to new children. The ad pointedly asks decision-makers President Obama, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY) whether they will stand with low-income children in D.C. or with special interests who have lobbied Congress to kill the OSP.
By refusing to permit new students to enter the OSP, the program is not “saved” – it shrinks and dies. Campaign organizers say that eliminating the program sends a terrible message to low-income District families, and that it will ultimately force the D.C. government to incur substantially increased costs.
The OSP is the nation’s only federally-funded school choice program. Widely supported by local leaders including D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, a majority of the D.C. City Council, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the program is also supported 75 percent of D.C. residents. Reauthorization bills in Congress have bipartisan support from Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), George Voinovich (R-OH), and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH).
The program has served more than 3,300 children and is considered one of the few federal education programs to yield statistically significant gains in student achievement. The program allows low-income parents to use scholarships of up to $7,500 to send their children to the schools of their choice.
“It is fundamentally wrong that this administration refuses to listen to the voices of the people of this city,” says coalition leader and former D.C. Councilman Kevin Chavous in the ad.
The television spot—which is accompanied by newspaper ads across the country—will debut this Sunday. You can view it at: www.SaveSchoolChoice.com
DC Parents for School Choice
Andrew R. Campanella
andrew@ccgstrategies.com
Tel: 800-750-6510 x 3
Cell: 202-276-1303
