On the recordMarch 16, 2010
I thank my colleague, Senator Collins, for coming to the floor, for being a cosponsor of this amendment. And for the passionate and reasoned way in which she spoke. Two things come to mind in listening to her remarks. One is, we are very often dealing with big national or international matters on the floor of the Senate--health care reform, jobs act, whatever. They all involve people, of course. But here is one which is local, and we can actually quantify the people. We have 1,319 children who are in private or faith-based schools because of this DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, getting, by their own telling and that of their parents, so much better an education, feeling better about themselves, being on the road of opportunity. If we don't authorize this, although the administration has said it is committed to at least following these students through high school, there is not enough money there to do that. The President, in the budget, said this is probably the last year he will fund it. There is not enough money to carry these students through high school. The second point is, with all the uncertainty in the program, the current administrator of it, a nonprofit corporation, has said they don't want to do this anymore. So far, no one else has been found to do it.
