School choice advocates are high-fiving each other over an Institute of Education Sciences study that showed the D.C. Scholarship and Opportunity program has a positive impact on reading scores.
The report came out on Friday, which Flypaper views as a wussy attempt by the Obama administration to bury its findings. (The Washington Post wrote about it anyway, and had this editorial; thanks to Flypaper for the links).
As many folks are already aware, the Democratically controlled Congress approved a massive fiscal year 2009 spending bill that says this will be the last year of funding for the program, unless its authorization is renewed.
No one seems to think that’s likely. Still, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut who organizes with the Democrats and chairs the committee that has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, has said he’d like to hold hearings this year on reauthorizing the program.
I’m sure the program’s supporters are already Xeroxing copies of the report, and probably the Post’s editorial, to hand out at those hearings.
For more on the study, check out Inside School Research.