Obama Triggers School Voucher Debate

Politicians, educators and parents have been arguing about school voucher programs for a long time, but now they have something new to fight over.

Low-income families in Washington, D.C., have been using federal taxpayer money –– up to $7,500 a year –– to send their kids to private schools. They won't be doing that much longer, though. President Barack Obama signed a law last month that discontinues the vouchers, reports Bloomberg.com.

That leaves parents such as Sherrise Green with a dilemma. Two of her daughters have been going to school at Ambassador Baptist Church Christian School, and she had planned to enroll her five-year-old son Marquis.

"I had high hopes that he would be attending with a scholarship with his sisters," Greene told Bloomberg.com. "I'm just really hurt that it's being ended, because I think it's a good program."

The program will end before the 2010-2011 school year, though Obama plans to talk Congress into continuing funding for the 1,700 children already enrolled. His two daughters attend one of the 54 private schools that participate in the program, Sidwell Friends, which costs $28,442 for elementary grades and $1,000 more for middle and high school students.

Most of the students who enroll in the program don't go for expensive schools such as Sidwell Friends, said Greg Anrig, vice president of policy at the Century Foundation, a New York-based research group. Instead, they choose parochial schools that take a lot of low-income students.

Obama would rather see these students go to public charter schools.

For the complete story, visit bloomberg.com.