WASHINGTON (ABP) — In Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, President Bush may be able to push through Congress a pet project that they have stymied for four years now — a wide-ranging federal school voucher program.
Just a day after Bush presented an overview of hurricane-recovery efforts for the Gulf Coast Sept. 15, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that part of the money earmarked for schools would go to subsidizing private-school tuition for families evacuated from the region.
Spellings initially said that $488 million would be allocated for the program. New details released Sept. 19 clarified that that figure was an estimate, based on the fact that 61,000 children in the New Orleans area had attended private schools prior to the evacuation. In reality, vouchers of up to $7,500 per student would be available to any evacuee family.
“We're obviously doing something in the federal government that we've never done before,” Spellings said in a Sept. 16 conference call with reporters.
The program would essentially create the nation's first large-scale federal voucher program. Bush has repeatedly tried to create a nationwide program for vouchers that could be used by parents who want to enroll their children in private or religious schools. But, other than a small federally funded voucher program in the District of Columbia, Bush has been repeatedly rebuffed by Congress.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the use of government-funded vouchers in religious schools was constitutional. However, polls have shown that such programs remain unpopular in most populations, and many public-school advocates and supporters of strong church-state separation oppose the programs.
Some of those groups chastised Bush's move as political opportunism in the wake of a tragedy. “Federal funding should go to public schools in the affected areas, and to schools across the country taking in hurricane evacuees, not toward creating a controversial voucher program for students already enrolled in private schools,” read a statement from Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way. “The victims of Katrina need our help, and they deserve to be treated with dignity, not treated like guinea pigs in a massive experiment for a dubious education proposal.”
But White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, reacting to such criticisms in his Sept. 19 press briefing, said the recovery effort was Bush's paramount concern.
“The president is interested in pursuing good ideas that work. And he's said he's open to all good ideas from the state, local, and federal level,” McClellan said. “We've all got to work together in a united way to help the people get back on their feet, and then to rebuild their lives and rebuild their communities.”