Education Reform Professor to Testify Before Congress About Washington, D.C., Voucher Program

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Patrick Wolf

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas professor has been asked to testify Wednesday, May 13, at a Senate hearing in Washington on reauthorization of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a federal voucher program that awards scholarships for students to attend private schools in the nation’s capital.

Patrick J. Wolf, who holds the Twenty-First Century Chair in School Choice, was asked by the office of Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ind-Conn., to speak at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Lieberman chairs. The committee has oversight of the program because of the federal government’s responsibility for the District of Columbia. The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. CST, and video may be viewed on the committee's Web site. Witness testimony may also be read online at that site.

Last week, President Barack Obama proposed setting aside enough money for all 1,716 students in the district’s voucher program to continue receiving grants for private school tuition until they graduate from high school, but he would allow no new students to join the program, according to a May 7 story in the Washington Post. Congress voted in March to cut off funding after the 2009-10 academic year unless the entire program is reauthorized by lawmakers.

Wolf leads a team of researchers performing an evaluation of the school voucher program for the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Westat Inc. is the prime contractor for the study. In April, a report released on the evaluation found that, after three years, the program improved reading achievement for students by 3.7 months of instruction if they used an Opportunity Scholarship voucher to transfer to any of 52 participating private schools in the District of Columbia. Math achievement was not significantly affected by the program.

Wolf, professor of education reform in the College of Education and Health Professions, is principal investigator of the congressionally mandated longitudinal evaluation, now in its fifth year.

The Senate committee has asked Wolf to discuss what the results of the study suggest regarding the effectiveness of the program, especially compared with other education interventions that seek to improve the achievement of low-income and otherwise disadvantaged students. The committee also seeks recommendations from Wolf about avenues for future research on the program.