welcome to our committee this is a hearing on the dc opportunity scholarship program keeping the door open the committee will come to order and i will read the mission statement of the oversight committee which reads as follows we exist to secure two fundamental principles first americans have a right to know that money washington takes from them is well spent and second americans deserve an efficient effective government that works for them our duty on the oversight and reform committee is to protect these rights our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government we will work tirelessly in partnership with citizen watchdogs to deliver the facts to the american people and know we will have a couple of opening statements and then we will swear the witnesses and go into the testimony and on behalf of all of us thank you for being here consensus is not always easy to find in the world in which we live but i am confident that all of us in this room regardless of political persuasion agree on the value of education i can testify from firsthand experience about the magic and power of education and its ability to transform not just a single life as important as that is but also to transform generations of lives my parents grew up in a small farming town in south carolina my mother's grandfather was a sharecropper my mother's father had a sixth grade education my father is the first male to attend college in his family and he did so by getting up at in the morning and rolling newspapers and delivering them because he dreamed of going to college and he saved all of his money and he went and took all the math and science classes he could take at the university of south carolina and then when the money ran out he went to medical school so when i tell folks back home that my father is a medical doctor but he is not a college graduate they don't believe me but it is true my father realized that education was his only ticket to a better life and because of his sacrifices he changed not only his own life but the life of my three sisters and me and generations to come and i have been continually reminded of the power of education in my professional life as a prosecutor along with my friends in law enforcement i have seen almost every form of crime imaginable the one constant in those sixteen years of being a prosecutor inextricable link between education or a lack thereof and crime yesterday i had the pleasure of meeting with your chief of police in the district of columbia for the second time but it was a more extended meeting a wonderful person am very impressed with the department and what they were doing was coming up with a crime reduction strategy for the district of columbia and i could not help but think during that meeting that the best crime reduction strategy of all is a high so we are here to evaluate the district of columbia's opportunity scholarship program and in my judgment the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt the value and the efficacy of this program the parents overwhelmingly approve of the opportunity scholarship program they are engaged they are involved and they feel vested students approve of the program as evidenced by the fact that demand outpa supply four to one parents value the discipline and learning environment afforded by the opportunity scholarship program student performance is up both generally as evidenced by the higher graduation rates and more particularly as evidenced by their reading scores parents value the choices afforded by this program they don't want to be told their choices are limited because their bank accounts are limited what is good enough for the highest ranking officials in our country should be good enough for everyone even the united states department of education once lauded the opportunity scholarship program as an example of a program that is working before someone or something told them to think otherwise the residents of the district of columbia overwhelmingly want choices with respect to the education of their children the opportunity scholarship program may not be the answer for every student and this bill acknowledges that by providing ample funding to the public school system the charter school system as well as the opportunity scholarship program but the opportunity scholarship program has been successful in the eyes of the participants and it is frankly beyond comprehension how there could be opposition to a program that parents like students want that produces results and does nothing to detract from other educational resources the most compelling piece of evidence in support of this program is the personal testimony of the students and the parents i have listened as students and parents alike have vouched for this program as a lifesaver and a dream maker it is one thing to remind parents and children that their income levels are low i will not be the one to tell them that their dreams are too high with that i would y and building a very positive relationship with you as we carry out the subcommittee's work and while i intend to keep my remarks somewhat brief this morning so that i can share some of the time with congresswoman norton i appreciate the chairman's inaugural hearing on a topic that i care so deeply about and have spent such a great deal of my life focused on and that is the issue of public education i would also like to ask unanimous consent that the statements of the national school boards association the national coalition for public education americans united for separation of church and state the american association of school administrators the american civil liberties union and the american association of university women in opposition to h r four hundred and seventy one be included in the record rural america went to a one room school where one teacher ms b d king taught eight grades plus what we called the little primer and the big primer all at the same  time so i share your commitment to education however as a staunch supporter of public education i am not in favor of escalating private school vouchers at this time  e what they mean to me is that fewer taxpayer dollars for traditional schools will be reduced or diminished however i am in favor of improving education across the board so that every child in the district of columbia would have optimal opportunity to have the kind of experience educational experience that would prepare him or her for everything that they would want to be do and accomplish in life improving public education in the district of columbia is in the rest of the nation's has been and will remain a long and difficult climb the federal government has played a critical role in providing the district schools with badly needed fund thousand and four the city deserves recognition for prioritizing turning around its schools and for the improvements it has made for this reason i do feel that it would have been helpful for the comm to have heard from the mayor of the city and other elected leaders on this important topic i commend the students and parents here today for their advocacy of expanded educational  personal commitment to getting the best education that you can for yourselves and for your children however i am concerned that there are no parents of students here to advocate for the public schools families from those schools also have wonderful stories to tell about exceptional teachers and successful innovative teaching practices allowing federal dollars to fund private schools diverts attention and resources away from private schools that educate the vast majority of students in our country if we have limited federal dollars for education we should focus on fixing the public schools that are performing well and aiding their students rather than undermining those schools by syphoning not only off scarce federal dollars but in some instances the mix of students who would add to the dimension and opportunities of acquiring a great education for all with that said mister chairman i would like to reserve the balance of my time to be added to that courtesy that has always been given to the mayor of the district of columbia whatever party controlled the congress and for that matter to most busy highly placed public officials whose time is charged to the taxpayers i also learned that chairman gowdy did not make the decision concerning the appearance of mayor gray what was gained by denying the mayor's two separate attempts to get small changes that would have enabled them to testify here today except to make it impossible for him to testify as a minority witness against the bill before us or if he did testify to try to humiliate him and to disrespect his office instead of the courtesy of a routine accommodation by being placed early enough to be heard the mayor was offered the option of being the last witness on a panel with his constituents with no guarantee that he could be heard early enough to get back to urgent city business he had offered to push back for a reasonable period in twenty years of service in the congress i have never seen any highly placed public official treated so shabbily the discourteous response to our mayor's request was inconsistent with past practice of this committee and gray's office just two weeks ago and he and the mayor had a very cordial meeting considering mayor gray's respect for chairman gowdy i know that the mayor wants to put this matter behind him so that he can continue the cordial relationship that began w blame any parent for taking advantage of any educational opportunity that comes your way although i am a proud graduate of the d c public schools and strongly support our public schools i have always supported public charter school alternatives for those parents who are dissatisfied with our traditional public schools children cannot wait until public schools now in the throws of a race to the top meet the necessary standards this is true even though the d c public schools have made impressive strides by any measure for example notwithstanding the many improvements the d c public schools must make the national assessment of education progress which recently measured math progress in the nation's public schools f public schools to be the only schools in the nation to improve average math scores at both fourth and eighth grade levels by at least five points however the department of education final report on the opportunity scholarship program did not report the results we are seeing in the district's chosen alternatives to our traditional public schools our public charter schools the department of education's report and high schools with a majority of economically disadvantaged students scored almost twice as high as their d c public school counterparts in math and reading and the graduation rate of charter schools in the district is twenty four percent higher than the graduation rate of the public high schools and eight percent higher than the nationwide graduation rate yet our public charter schools have a significantly higher percentage of african americans and of disadvantaged children than our d c public schools of particular importance unlike our private schools d c public schools are fully accountable to the public in measures of performance and in every activity both public and public charter schools can and have been closed when acceptable standards have not been met d c public charter schools on average have a remarkable record but they are quick to concede that not all of them meet high standards however with this record of the d c s own public charter schools not a couple thousand students but almost twenty eight thousand students in these schools with this record why would congress target the district of columbia for private school vouchers moreover the continuing focus on private school vouchers exclusively for the district of columbia comes despite a compromise that allows every d c student now in the program to be funded until graduation from high school that compromise in turn followed a prior compromise to extend the program two years beyond the authorized five year cutoff date what is before us today is the startup of a brand new program for new children and again only in the district of columbia the single minded focus on public funding of private schools only in the district raises many questions if my republican colleagues believe private school vouchers are so important why haven't they used the experiment here in the district to offer a national bill on the floor allowing school districts that might choose vouchers could it be that the majority is influenced by state referenda on vouchers all of which have been lost by voucher performance could it be that the republican majority has read the national polls showing that the american people overwhelmingly oppose public funding of private schools if the republican majority is truly concerned about alternatives to public education why are they not expanding funding for public charter schools which have a large congressional bipartisan majority both in the house and the senate the inescapable conclusion is that the republicans believe they can indulge their personal and ideological preferences with impunity here in the district a risk they are unwilling to take in their own districts with private school vouchers the republicans did not consult the district's elected officials before introducing a bill to start up a new voucher program yet the desperate budget situation in the district has put most in the council in a position of appearing to reverse their position against vouchers that they previously took in letters to me when d c residents mounted one of the largest protests during my i ask they previously took opposing vouchers in letters to me at a time when a huge demonstration was mounted here in the congress by residents against imposing vouchers on the district they can hardly be blamed for this change of mind they certainly know that it would do very little good to lobby the house for any new funding for the home rule choice of our parents for independent public school alternatives however this is exactly what speaker newt gingrich did when he first mentioned private school vouchers to me i told him of public opposition to vouchers in the city but not to public charter that we will now go to the testimony and it is my pleasure to introduce the panel i will introduce the panel in whole and then we will start with you mister holassie and go in that order how is that does that sound good all right we are pleased to have mister ronald is a senior at archbishop carroll high school and a district of columbia opportunity scholarship program recipient since the sixth grade to his left and our right is ms lesly alvarez she is an eighth grader at sacred heart school and a d c opportunity scholarship program recipient ms sheila jackson is the mother of an osp student shawnee who is in the tenth grade at of district of columbia and ms latasha bennett is a single mother of two children nico received an opportunity scholarship program while nia was one of the two hundred and sixteen students whose scholarship was retracted however through donations her family receives nia is able to attend the same school as her brother welcome to all four of you and mister holassie we will recognize you for your five minute opening statement  before we do that because it is a policy of the committee to swear the witnesses we will ask you to rise and lift your right hands for two years i am now a senior at archbishop carroll high school my journey with the washington d c opportunity scholarship program began six years ago when i was thirteen i was raised in a single parent household with my mother and younger brother i faced many challenges in the public school system i attended various d c public schools during elementary school altercations with other students and a lack of academic achievement resulted in me switching to different schools around d c but it seemed that i was faced with the same problems at each new school then one day my mother saw an ad for the d c opportunity scholarship program she quickly applied and soon after i was accepted and given a scholarship to attend any private school of our choice in d c my mother now had a chance to send me to a school she knew would fit me best the scholarship cover tuition books and my uniform my mother saw it as a blessing and an answer of prayer from god for her child she always wanted me to have a quality education when i received my scholarship i was so far behind that the school asked me to repeat the sixth grade the first few months were very different as the expectations and standards were much higher the discipline in the school was also much stricter adjusting to the new school wasn't easy it took time i had to catch up and get on the academic level i needed to be on and fulfill the expectations of the new school but it all didn't happen that fast it took some years and hard work and dedication there was a transition stage that i had to undergo it took some time to adjust to the new standards and expectations but i soon adjusted well when i entered high school i was quite nervous and didn't really know what to expect being at archbishop carroll high school shaped me academically shaped me to perform academically with my greatest potential as i am now a senior at archbishop carroll high school finishing up my last year i am ready to take on the world and new opportunities i credit the d c opportunity scholarship program for my success this program has worked is still working and will continue to work it is a must to  reauthorize the d c opportunity scholarship program everyone deserves a choice and should have the right of school choice and opportunity as i said before unto the united states senate public schools did not get bad overnight and they are not going to get better overnight so we need to take action now and have a program installed to give children a quality education such as the d c opportunity scholarship program  of the d c opportunity scholarship program is critical we should always have options and this program is an option for parents and students looking back i can see throughout the past years i have evolved so much and at the same time dealt with many obstacles as a young child many challenges came before me in which i had to undergo hardships and persevere through all the pain suffering and tears i am still standing not just standing but standing strong ready to take on the world and achieve much more as a young man i see a future ahead of me and a vision of a successful life i feel as if all these years served as preparation for the real world i am now confident that i can go out into the world and make something out of my life and that i will not only impact people here in the united states but around the world i made it this far and nothing can stop me now from succeeding not a single voice or action of opposition can stop my success nor the success of thousands of children who have the opportunity to choose a school that is best for them it is not just about me and my story as i am now a senior months away from graduating i am here for not only myself and the students currently enrolled in the d c opportunity scholarship program but the thousands of children who have not been given the same opportunity i am here to fight for quality education and have the d c opportunity scholarship program reauthorized as it needs to be i am a product of this program a successful result the c opportunity scholarship program has provided the education that has shaped me into being the intelligent ambitious person that is in front of you all now the results of the d c opportunity scholarship program are certainly life changing now being a young adult taking on my own responsibilities i have certainly been greatly influenced by this program i can look back and credit this program for my success it's not just what this program does academically but it is how it impacts  members of the committee thank you for inviting me to tell my story today my name is lesly alvarez i am an eighth grade opportunity scholarship student i live at home with my mother father and brother at home we speak spanish and english english is my second language i learned it while attending sacred heart school both languages are taught at sacred heart because it is a bilingual school in fact it is the only bilingual catholic school in all of d c sacred heart is a very special and unique place my classmates and i represent a lot of different countries for example el salvador mexico nicaragua cameroon barbados dominican republic puerto rico and vietnam also we share different religious backgrounds there are catholic and buddhist students and there are protestant students like me the common thread between us all is that we are all learning to be responsible citizens of our school community and the greater community my teachers are very proud of me for testifying on behalf of our school community today i am very involved in my school a minimum of twenty hours of community service is needed in order to graduate eighth grade i only have two hours left my favorite subject in school i love it so much because there is reading involved i am able to grasp the material quickly and connect stories to my life i am definitely planning on attending college in my future i am sure that i want to make something out of my life and be successful i am interested in studying law i think i would be a good lawyer because i am a persuasive arguer and fight for what i believe in the main reason why i find interest in law is because i like defending people and i stand up for justice one of milagros in english this translates as in search of miracles i am reading this book right now in my spanish class it is so powerful and has changed the way i looked at my life and my future i connect with the main character milly short for milagros in a couple of ways the first way is that we are both searching for something being an adopted child milly is searching for knowledge of her past being an opportunity scholar i am searching for knowledge for my future the opportunity scholarship program has been a miracle for me and hundreds of other students like me milly wants to know where she comes from i want to know where i am going with my scholarship i know i will go far milly and i have one more thing in common we are young and a lot of people tell us that we are too young to overcome the obstacles set in front of us milly's successful story showed me that i should just keep working to get through the obstacles i know i cannot change the minds of the adults who doubt the value of the opportunity scholarship program but like milly i know that i need to work hard every day to overcome my obstacles and demonstrate the value of my scholarship so that more kids like me can receive it too there are a couple of ways in my case i feel like i am still in the beginning of my life story i still have a lot of years of education ahead of me in order to achieve my dreams but unlike milly i will not wait to take control of my actions until later i am taking control today by testifying milly's miracle comes to her because eventually her work leads her to learn about her past the miracle that i am searching for today is that the opportunity scholarship program be rea minute opening statement ms jackson chairman gowdy members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today i am a single parent of two i have a fifteen year old daughter who is and has been a recipient of the opportunity scholarship for six years i was educated in the south and experienced racism firsthand i attended segregated schools until i began high school i prayed that when i became a mother my child or children would never have to experience racism on the level i did as a young girl i remember waking in the middle of the night to screaming neighbors because a cross was burning on their lawn i also have memories of being told that i could not use the restroom in public buildings while out shopping with my mother because i was not the appropriate skin color watching the ku klux klan parading in our neighborhood just because they could the list goes on but in spite of all the racial negativity surrounding me i vowed that i would not let it hamper my growth and that when i had children i would provide the best i could and that they would have the best education possible in spite of all my efforts my daughter now faces another form of segregation to segregate her from attending a school of my choice and that is best suited for her just because some politicians feel that my child and many others who are currently recipients of the opportunity scholarship do not deserve the quality education their children receive why that's a question we parents would all like an answer to i am disabled and i live on a fixed income if this program is not reauthorized it would be impossible for me to pay tuition to the private christian school my daughter currently attends the opportunity scholarship program has been the difference to her having to attend schools that are not safe and are still underperforming to her attending a school that meets her needs and where i know she is safe my daughter attended d c public schools through fourth grade i was not pleased with the overcrowded classrooms teachers having to share teacher aides purchase school supplies with their own money children so unruly the police had to be called because they were a threat to the rest of the student body during he fourth grade year i had taken as much as i could she was struggling in math and her teacher was not willing to do anything outside of her plan to help my daughter we went back and forth with her teacher accusing me of trying to run  classroom she blatantly told me that if my daughter did not get it then she was sorry i agreed with her that she was sorry if she was not willing to do what she was there for to educate the students in her charge i was determined that i would not allow this school system to fail my child and i knew that if she continued in the d c public school system that would surely be the case the school she attended was an underperforming school as were most of the schools in my ward i requested a meeting with the principal and that meeting was granted in attendance were her teacher the principal and myself after hearing from her teacher and myself he was in agreement with me that her teacher was not doing enough to help my daughter i learned about tutoring options for low income families under the no child left behind program i applied for my daughter and she was accepted after an assessment of her by the tutor it was discovered that she was intimidated by math ms johns her tutor who is currently a professor at the university of oklahoma worked with my daughter through the remainder of the school year there was a tremendous improvement in her math grades that was her last year in the d public school system during that year i learned about and applied for the opportunity scholarship and shawnee was accepted she is now a sophomore in high school attending the preparatory school of d c an honor roll student and making plans for college not only has the opportunity scholarship provided me a choice for my daughter but also for thousands of other parents i stand today asking that the opportunity scholarship program be reauthorized and be opened to new students as well my motto is simple walk good and journey safe that our children will continue to be afforded the opportunity to have a good walk through their education and all the and supporters thank you for allowing me to share my family's story regarding the need to continue the d c opportunity scholarship program and for it to be reauthorized my name thirty nine year old single parent of two very intelligent children my son nico thomas here today is nine years old and attends naylor road private school where he is in the fourth grade and he is excelling my daughter nia thomas is six years old and she also attends naylor road thanks to generous private donations which we have truly been blessed to receive without these donations i do not know where my daughter would be going to school i am currently unemployed due to a disability i worked from the age of fourteen until the year two thousand when i became disabled because of the inability for me to work the d c opportunity scholarship program has been a true blessing for myself and my son and our family nico is thriving academically in his school and loving it the students in nico's class get more hands on from the teacher because there are only nine students in his class students are given so much more attention and they learn twice as much in their class i don't want to see my son's dreams of becoming a doctor washed down the drain because he is forced to attend a school that does not meet his needs i applied for the scholarship for nia so she could later a retraction letter came it was like a nightmare i was appalled i felt a bit of injustice not only to my daughter but to all of the other children as well  i felt like the system had failed my baby before she had been given a chance to even begin her dreams i was totally devastated and angry that my child was denied an opportunity to attend t school along with her brother a school where she would be safe and get a quality education why shouldn't my child be given the same opportunity as your children to get the best  education possible is my child not worthy of getting what so many of our ancestors fought for years ago my daughter has dreams of being a famous dancer and singer and i motivate her dreams because as long as she has a dream there is a chance for a good future i want nia to have the same opportunity to excel well as her brother in the same  way that she has big dreams to excel i want that also for other students nia is so looking forward to going to college in the future she continues to ask me mom will i go to school with my brother next year i use to answer her and tell her yes now i don't know what will i tell her i know that i cannot count on private donations to send her to naylor road for the remainder of her time in school but i look know how it feels when your child is so happy that their little face lights up and you can't bring yourself to cause that light to go out we are looking to those of you who have power to continue this program and assure that our children have the opportunity to get the type of education they deserve without the d c opportunity scholarship program i pray daily that i will have peace of mind to know because i don't know where i will truly send my daughter to school i know for certain it will not be any schools in my area i have seen what happens to the children in neighborhood that fall through the cracks i lost my nephew to neighborhood school i will not lose my children when they are so bright and willing to learn and be productive citizens please allow my children to continue this opportunity through the opportunity scholarship program t bright and better future by continuing this program education is the number one priority besides god in my household and by reauthorizing the d c opportunity scholarship program so many parents and children like myself will have bear amplification which is the d c opportunity scholarship program does not take one red cent from the d c public school system and to argue otherwise is disingenuous at best this is not an argument about whether or not we are going to fund all three layers of the d c school system it is about whether we are going to give the same choice to poor folk that rich folk have so against that backdrop let me ask mister holassie and ms alvarez to do what is sometimes hard even for adults to do which is imagine circumstances are different i want you to imagine if there were no d c opportunity scholarship program do you have to go to sacred heart with me but now they attend public school and they just don't know what to do some haven't even applied to high school so it is just sad mister gowdy ms jackson and ms bennett if i understood your testimony correctly it was that if you were persons of means if money were not an issue in life you would choose to go to the private schools that your children are going to is that correct ms jackson that is correct for me sir i firmly believe that it should be a choice of where i send my daughter to school where i feel it is safe for her where her educational needs are met and right now where she is i feel that everything she needs is met there she is safe i don't worry about her during the day whether a fight is going to break out or whether the police will have to be call and i am appreciated of this school that i chose that i had the opportunity to choose for my children for one because of the safety because of the teachers commitments to teach the children and the grades that my children are getting i brought today for an example nia being she had donations made all as in the first grade and is writing in cursive which already made the choice in your mind if you were people of means you wouldn't have to come before a congressional committee and ask for this program ms bennett not at all mister gowdy can you fashion any reason why poor folk or folk who are not wealthy enough to attend private school on their own should have fewer choices than rich folk ms bennett i don't see any reason why not because i think that our children should be able to get the same education and allowed the same education be it that we are poor or not we just can't afford to give our children that education and if most people empathize that  comments and statements i seriously appreciate them ms jackson and ms bennett both of you indicated that there is a serious difference between the schools that your children currently attend and the schools that they attended earlier could you share with us what those differences  mister davis the last school my daughter attended in the d c public school system was mcgogney elementary school which is in ward eight where we were living at the time we actually lived next door to the school so i had a full view of the outside activity not knowing what was going on on the inside being disabled i was at home a big portion of the day and often would see police cars pulling into the parking lot which would give me great fear because i did not know what was going on with the student body inside and this happened on a daily basis the school that she is currently attending and the school that she previously attended before her current school were both private christian schools when i leave her or when she leaves me in the morning and she steps into the school i don't worry i know that her educational needs are going to be met i know that she is going to be safe i know that if anything happens that i will be contacted to know that maybe she has fallen and had an accident i didn't get that in the d c public school system she would come home on numerous days saying that someone had taken something from her she was afraid to say anything to the student for fear of being beaten up so there is a big difference in the education she has had over the past six years and the first four years of her education in the d c public school system okay i can say nico only had one year experience in public schools and that one year he went to clark elementary which was in ward four which we had lived at that moment and i was pregnant with my daughter i was a high risk pregnancy therefore i was unable to work and i one of those apron string moms and i frequently went up to nico's school which he was in pre  through just to see and one time i even drove up to the school and parked on the side and the students were actually on the playground by themselves just because a door was open to their classroom and after that i had several questions for the teachers why nico wasn't learning more than what he had learned at home they couldn't give me any answers and i wanted more for my child and i took him out of the public school more selective ms bennett i notice that the students excuse me i notice that the students are very intelligent from the teaching which even my son receives i notice that because i did volunteer up at their school several times that a lot of the students did come from public schools and it is the parents that chose to take advantage of the opportunity and the classes are smaller so there is more chair would recognize the gentleman from arizona doctor gosar mister gosar thank you i also come from a state that is struggling with education i am also from rural america from a  a problem not to have a choice and able to dictating where your child goes to school do you see a problem ms bennett i see a problem with not having a choice because that takes away first of all my own liberty that we are supposed to have to choose and it is a problem to me to not have that choice to choose because i want what is best for my child just like other people choose to send their children where they choose to it is just that i am not financially fit to pay for what i choose so that is a  bennett i want the choice to have my child have a quality education just as wealthy americans make the choices to send their children to private schools that they know are safe where they going to receive a quality education i feel my daughter deserves nothing less and i want to continue to have that choice although i am also not financially able to make those payments to a private school but i would like to continue to have it currently is right now ms bennett honestly i would say no just to be brief i have nephews and a nice that goes to the local school in my area and i frequently go with my sister to the school because they are calling almost twice a week or three times a week because of incidents that are happening at the school either somebody is trying to beat up my nephew or beat up my niece they are twins and this is a c public school and i had almost got frustrated with not knowing about the opportunity scholarship program continuing that i had almost applied to that school and i sat in there for thirty minutes and after seeing what was going on i honestly left out and left the papers on the table and i said no matter what if they didn't reauthorize this program i would home teach my daughter other than have her in an environment that is not safe and i think that the d c public school system is not a bad school system but it needs great improvement and i believe that at this time it would not satisfy me or satisfy the needs of my daughter for her to be in the d c public school system as mister holassie stated the school system didn't get that way overnight and it is not going to be fixed overnight so it is going to take a while to get it back to where it should be i believe that the school system could be a great school system if all the efforts are put forth and things are done to make it better but right now no i don't think it is the school system that well i know it is not the school system that i would want my child in at this time mister gosar one last point it seems to me that on education there has to be the family i positive results could you see any way as a parent the opportunity for choice gives you the opportunity for success in the educational model i believe so i believe that because of the disarray that the d c public school system is in and the choice that i have chosen and the choice that i have been able to take has been a difference in her quality of education her grades her grades have greatly improved in the six years that she has been out of the d c public school system and i just know that because of this that is why her grades are there where she attends school i know in my heart in my soul that because she was out of the d c public school system that these grades that she is making the career choices that she is thinking about are because of the choice of her being in a school that cares about what she learns and where she goes in her future ms bennett and i agree with ms jackson it is evident by the report cards that i have here that my children are excelling in the school that i chose for them to go to and i was very vigorously searching when i was choosing and if they had not had the opportunity or i had not had the opportunity to choose i don't believe they would be making these same grades and as motivated to be what they want achievements of my young constituents and clearly against the odds very proud of you and i want to congratulate the parents because you are doing what parents are supposed to be doing the most important factor in student achievement is passion parents for that achievement and i know that well ms jackson i graduated from segregated schools in the district of columbia i went to bruce monroe elementary better there was a large population here in the district of columbia i love the d c public schools they are doing much better but you will never find that this congresswoman is an  is the one hundred percent funded federal program that allows our youngsters to go to any public college anywhere in the united states and that program has  doubled college attendance here and mister holassie whether you choose a public or private school anybody that gets you is going to get a lot of quality i am going to use the remainder of my time simply to put on the record what the record is for this program and i appreciate the time that was given me in my opening remarks i was speaking about speaker gingrich who approached me about school vouchers and i told him of public opposition to vouchers in the city thirty four which included the school reform act of one thousand nine hundred and ninety five passed here in the congress that has produced what amounts to a large scale robust alternative public school system that has become a model for the nation with almost half of our children in attendance the long waiting lists of our public charter schools are the best evidence of their quality and their embrace by our parents and residents at the school's own home rule choice our public charter schools are aware both of the need and the demand why then set up a congressionally sponsored private school program for the city why when ours is the only big city with both rapidly improving public schools and a model alternative public charter school system why when the city is one of the few jurisdictions in the nation that has no barriers to public school alternatives why isn't the district of columbia being rewarded with funding to continue to build the city's public charter schools and to respond to the waiting lists of parents that can't get in can't enroll their students the answer is power the same congressional power that stripped the city of its vote on the first day of the session that also seeks to reimpose anti democratic amendments on the city in the pending appropriation bills it is power that this power respected d c democracy we appreciate congressional interest in our children we ask only for congressional respect for the people of the district of columbia who have built their own alternative to our public schools any new funding for education in the district should reinforce the hard work of our own parents and residents who have shown the nation that they know how to build a popular seed residential charter school d c residents know what to do without the benefit of congressional paternalism instruction or intervention thank you mis this should be such a happy happy hearing and believe me i have sat in a number of hearings that are not happy you all are a huge success story you all are especially you two right there you are the future you are the future you are the face of education in this country i come from illinois in illinois we have a new mayor of chicago rahm immanuel and i think a couple days mister immanuel was asked where is he going to send his kids to school now that he is moving back to chicago and i believe his answers and i don't want to get it wrong was i don't know it could be public could be private could be religious could be charter but that is going to be the decision my wife and i make and i would just ask that you respect that decision how refreshing i want you to do something that might be terribly yes clap do something that the four of you might not want to do pretend you are politicians for a minute put on your political hats try to give me short answers politicians don't give short answers do your best why do you think it is that there are people in this country think like a politician that don't want you to have this choice but you know what you are going to make a good politician because you didn't answer the question laughter mister walsh i want a straight direct answer out of you why do you think it is that there are people who don't want you to have this choice simple why other priorities mister walsh what give me one priority that might come before before your parents having that choice it can be political decisions mister walsh political ms alvarez why do you think there are some people that don't want your parents to have a choice ms alvarez i really don't understand why they wouldn't want us to have the choice or my parents to have the choice for me come on why do you think it is there are people that do not want you to have that choice this choice come on ms jackson honestly speaking sir i believe they don't even know why truly they don't want our children to have the same value probably the public schools of course the public school and private school sector and it is the opposers that know that this program works mister walsh all right now this is getting a little fun no e that i would add is that when it comes to educating our kids who should have that power pretty simple question right when it comes to educating our kids should it be us up  here should it be the teachers should it be the administrators should it be the governor who should have the power the power when it comes to deciding where a child goes to school this should be a one word answer am very impressed and i want to thank all of you for being here and i don't want us to be confused by what is happening here today  i think it is a disservice to a person like ms holmes norton for anybody to even remotely imply and for me and for others that we don't want people to have choice the only way that i am here today as a son of two former sharecroppers with less than a sixth grade education is because of an education we get that we also get that this week eight hundred and ninety dollars million from the general education budget is going to be slash that is real and i think the thing that we confuse is this we want every single child to have the opportunity that you have every one we want all seventy four thousand in d c to have that i want them in my community i live in the inner city of baltimore the best schools in the entire city i sit on the board of the kipp school i know what can be done when we put our heads together to help children achieve so let's not be confused it is not a question of whether folk don't want people to have choices when it came to my daughter going to school i made sure she got a good education and i applaud you ms bennett and i applaud you ms jackson because we have to be the into the public schools stayed in the public schools i know what you are talking about i live in the inner city i see every day what happens and you are right you want a safe environment and you can bet your bottom dollar that most members of congress their kids go to school in a safe environment you can bet your bottom dollar that they do have the choices well i think that what we should want all of us before we start cutting eight hundred and ninety  million from the education budget we need to be concentrating on how do we make sure that every single child is properly educated the greatest threat to our national security in this country is our failure to properly educate every single child every one of them and when we fail to do that then we have the situation where we have young men in baltimore prisons with less than a sixth grade reading level me and to others to fight for opportunity but sadly in our country not everybody has all those choices and i am just wondering you know i look at the charter schools and d c has made some chance to go these private schools there are probably i don't know how many but hundreds of thousands i guess maybe hundreds who don't get that chance so if we are going to do anything we need to be working together to make sure that every child has those opportunities so that testimony it is not just what this program does academically but it is how it impacts an individual through education and that is what it has done for me mister mchenry okay ms alvarez you mentioned that you had parental involvement that actually made this happen school is the only bilingual catholic school in the d c area ms alvarez correct mister mchenry how important is it for you to have that choice of having a bilingual school ms alvarez it is important because at the same time i don't lose my background of spanish from where i come reflection on your commitment to not only your own education but the education of all of your friends and neighbors and to ms jackson and ms bennett i appreciate you being here as well let me just first reassure  jackson and ms bennett there has been some conversation about given the uncertainty right now over the funding going forward would there be a process in place to make sure that children that are currently in the program now would stay in the program and we have gotten assurances from the administration that within the debate going on in congress today that the administration is going to do everything in its power to make sure that students that are currently in the program will be able to stay and i think many of us will be very interested in continuing that conversation let me just ask a simple question when we talk about this program this is clearly about continuing your commitment to your education but it is also about making the public school system better that is the argument for this program and i would just be interested in your assessment over the now you guys have only been in it for a few years but as parents and  advocates you have been watching this program for a series of years i would be interested as to your assessment as to what this program over the five years that it has been in place has meant to the d c public school system have you seen the d c public school system public school system i would be interested as to what you think it has meant for that system ms bennett to be honest i see the d c public school system is attempting to try but to be frankly honest from what agree as well in certain wards the schools seem to be i don't want to say pushed aside but they are not given as much attention as in schools that would be in the wards where the majority of these schools are attended by white children the schools in ward seven ward eight and some schools in ward six are underperforming schools because they don't get the attention that they should and that didn't just happen it has been that way for years i have lived in both ward eight and ward seven and those schools in those wards where my daughter would have to attend now are still underperforming schools so i see that the d c public school system are making efforts to make that system better but now as it stands i still would not want my daughter to attend the d c public s i can see that they are trying to make the schools better but they are not really putting their best foot forward to go all the way and make them the best that they could be but they are  and the reason i asked that question is because the theory sometimes doesn't always match up to the reality and as mister cummings so eloquently stated the public school system in this nation cannot get better no matter how many more vouchers that you put into the system if they don't have the resources to do it if they don't have the attention to the schools and the neighborhoods that need to get better and why it is so maddening for some of us to be in washington today is that while this is i think a very very useful debate in other rooms around this capital we are having a debate about sucking billions of dollars out of those very schools that we are asking to get better and it seems an impossible situation to put schools across this city and across this cannot thank you enough for your attendance for your eloquence as mister murphy cited for your willingness to share your experience with us what i would propose at this point selfishly i would like to come thank you in person so we will take a short recess as the second panel comes forward and i will be heading down towards you to thank you in person and write notes so you two can go back to school if you want to okay