School Vouchers
On March 10, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved, by voice vote, the reauthorization of a school voucher program for Washington, D.C. The legislation, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Reauthorization (SOAR) Act (H.R. 1387), would renew for another five years a 2004 program that offers scholarships to low-income students for use at private or parochial schools in the District. More than 1,200 students participated in the program in the 2015–2016 school year. This school year, the program received more than 2,349 new applications but was only able to award 234 new scholarships. In recent years, Congress has…
