Rule No. 1: No matter how academically effective, anything viewed as a threat to the usual way of doing things in public schools is subject to slander, obstruction, de-funding or summary decapitation.
Rule No. 2: To understand some of the causes of low achievement in schools, see Rule No. 1.
It was not the “failure” but the success of Washington, D.C.’s, educational voucher program that made it a target of the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress.
Established in 2004, the government-funded program allowed low-income students from the district’s failing public schools to attend private schools with vouchers – for far less than the district spends per student in its public schools.
It worked, swimmingly.