House approves vouchers for D.C.

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The House, on two razor-thin votes, yesterday approved a historic private-school voucher program for D.C. parents who want to remove their children from public schools.

On a 205-203 vote, with four Democrats joining 201 Republicans, the House voted to start a five-year pilot program to offer school-choice scholarships of up to $7,500 to an estimated 2,000 parents whose children currently attend failing D.C. public schools.

The program passed as an amendment to the appropriations bill for the District.

"This amendment offers help and hope to disadvantaged families in the District of Columbia, by giving them the same education choices that middle-class families already enjoy," said Rep. John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

House Democrats still hope the voucher vote will be overturned when the appropriations bill comes up for a final vote Tuesday. The program also awaits Senate action, which, given the closeness of the House votes, is not anticipated to be easy, both supporters and opponents of school vouchers said yesterday.

Fourteen Republicans opposed the voucher initiative championed by President Bush and proposed by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, Virginia Republican. The close vote was marked by heavy Republican arm-twisting.

Opponents repeatedly said there was "no evidence" that vouchers help poor families or foster public school improvement. They equated vouchers to abandoning the public schools and stripping them of much-needed funding.

"I see a trick; I see subterfuge. I see us undermining the right for our children to get a good common school education," said Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat.

"It's D.C. today. It's Chicago tomorrow, St. Louis, New Orleans, Los Angeles next week, then it's all of America. The message ... goes far beyond Washington, D.C."