Donald M. Payne: “I rise with great excitement. My Republican colleagues have made a vow to offset new spending, but they found a cause…”

“I rise with great excitement. My Republican colleagues have made a vow to offset new spending, but they found a cause worthy enough to bypass this promise. My Republican colleagues have rallied behind the SOAR Act, a $300 million bill without an offset. Reportedly, the goal of the bill is to give ``all students a shot to win the future'' by ``restoring hope'' and ``building stronger public schools.'' This is truly encouraging as it matches my goals as well as those of many of my Democratic colleagues. However, I strongly disagree with the proposed solution. The $300 million bill will continue the D.C. Opportunities Scholarship Program, which was ineffective. Department of Education reports show the voucher program had no statistically significant impact on overall student achievement, aspirations for the future, the frequency of doing homework, or attendance or tardiness rates. Further, although built on the premise of choice, voucher schools can and do reject students based on prior academic achievement, economic background, English language ability, or disciplinary history, which significantly limits choice. This $300 million program, which has proven ineffective, is not the solution for the intended goal. To reach this goal, we can begin by repealing the H.R. 1 cuts to programs that remove barriers for low- income students, such as title I programs, Head Start and TRIO.…”