Obama is failing poor D.C. students

Despite being "a skeptic of vouchers," candidate Barack Obama promised this would not prevent him from "making sure that our kids can learn." As he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "You do what works for the kids."

Last Jan. 21, his first full day in office, President Obama declared, "My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government."

Just 10 weeks later, Obama has broken both these promises. And poor-but-promising minority kids suffer the consequences.

These 1,714 children — 90 percent black and 9 percent Hispanic — enjoy the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. They each receive up to $7,500 for private or parochial schools outside Washington's dismal government-education system. Since its 2004 launch, 7,852 students have applied for these grants, or more than four children per voucher.

This program's popularity notwithstanding, Obama stayed silent as Congress scheduled this initiative's demise after the 2009-10 academic year. Both a Democratic Congress and D.C. authorities must reauthorize the program — not likely.

Now it emerges that Obama's Department of Education possessed peer-reviewed, congressionally mandated research proving this program's success. Though it demonstrates "what works for the kids," DOE hid this study until Congress squelched these children's dreams.

This analysis compared voucher users' test scores to those of students who requested vouchers but lost the award lottery. Among DOE's results:

While they were no better at math, voucher recipients read 3.7 months ahead of non-voucher students.

Student subgroups — including high achievers, those from functional schools, and applicants between kindergarten and grade 8 — showed "1?3 to 2 years of additional learning growth."

This good news remained concealed, from the study's conclusion last fall through March's congressional debate until April 3, when DOE finally released this report. Worse yet, DOE researchers reportedly were forbidden to publicize or discuss their findings. "You'd think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program," the April 5 Wall Street Journal editorialized.

For Team Obama, this is transparency we can believe in.

One expects better from Obama, who won a scholarship at age 10 to attend Hawaii's prestigious, private Punahou school. "There was something about this school that embraced me, gave me support and encouragement, and allowed me to grow and prosper," Obama has said.

DC voucher recipients want such life chances.

Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. E-mail him at deroy.Murdock@gmail.com