Dc Schools

Believe it or not there are children in this country going to public schools that are using books from the seventies. Would one believe that school system was from our nations capital and the Washington DC public school system is one of the worse in the country. This school system is in serious need of financial aid but that aid is being taken away by the new implementation of a school voucher system. This voucher system is working to undermine the process of fixing the public schools. The school voucher is a grant that is given to some of the many low-income families that reside within the district. Seven thousand dollar will be given in order for the child to attend a private charter or religious school in the area. This is a shortcut and a quick fix for a few to a much bigger problem.

The Washington DC school system is riddle with problems; there is a dangerous shortage of qualified teachers in the district. The pay and the danger from working with a lot of the inner city schools makes it hard to entice exceptional teachers to come to the district. The facilities for the students is also in dyer straights, some of the school buildings within the system are literally falling apart and are not fit for students even some of the more prestigious schools are running into the same problems. All of these problems can begin to be alleviated by extra money out into the school system.

The mayor and congress feel that the best course of action is to implement this voucher system with out exploring the options of trying to repair the system. The extra money that is being used in the system could go to funding for more security and the employment of better teachers in the area. President Bush had stated that no child would be left behind. That simply is not the case only some of the children will be able to receive the grant and then the other students are left to contend with DC public schools the way they stand. If grants are not going to be present for all of the students than it should not be for such a small percentage of the students. The voucher plan has an estimated budget of thirteen million dollars that the federal government will produce to support this. The city council has been trying repeatedly to receive extra money to support the school system to no avail. The state of emergency that the schools are in have been called “A slow moving train wreck” by the mayor him self what he fails to see that vouchers will only slow down the process but it will not correct it or stop it. There needs to be a lasting solution to this problem