Vouchers

The District's public schools are among the worst in the country. After years of largely fruitless efforts to improve them Mayor Anthony Williams last year successfully pushed for the implementation of a voucher program for poor families to send their children to private schools.

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Today's Washington Post takes a look at one mother who has decided to take advantage of the program:

Thanks to their federal vouchers, the four children are getting a free education at a school where annual tuition normally would cost $4,500 for each of them -- a total of $18,000, which is more than Hammond's annual income. And Hammond is impressed by the differences between the Baptist-oriented Nannie Burroughs and the public school her children attended the previous year -- smaller classes, more enthusiastic teachers and fewer discipline problems.

Remind me again why vouchers are a bad thing?