Bill would give vouchers for better schools - Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Bill would give vouchers for better schools

A key senator has come up with a proposal to subsidize attendance at private or charter schools for military dependents.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, ranking Republican on the Senate armed services subcommittee on personnel, proposes a pilot program where the Defense Department would give “scholarships” to selected elementary and secondary school students that could be used to pay for private schools or the charter schools.

The test proposed by Graham would be limited to families in the National Capitol Region, and would take effect beginning in 2011 and last for five years, with $20 million a year available for the scholarships. Scholarships would be used to pay for tuition, fees and transportation expenses for students to attend the school parents choose.

Amounts of the scholarships and eligibility rules would be left to the Defense Department to determine, under Graham’s proposal, which he introduced Monday as an amendment to the 2010 defense authorization bill, S 1390, which the Senate hopes to pass by the end of the week.

Scholarships to attend private and charter schools is Graham’s response to complaints from military families about limited options for their children. A panel of military spouses brought up the possibility of getting vouchers that could be redeemed at schools of their choice.

Patricia Davis, the wife of Chief Master Sgt. James Davis, the command chief master sergeant of the 316th Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., told the personnel subcommittee that she increasingly sees “military families paying to send their children to private schools due to the lack of quality education in the area they’re assigned to or they’re deciding to home school instead.”

“To have our children in one area with quality blue ribbon schools and then be reassigned to a location where the schools are rated below average is distressing to families,” Davis said. “Our kids’ education should not have to suffer because of military obligations.”

Davis suggested the creation of a military school voucher program, which is what Graham’s scholarship idea essentially provides.