The Hill reports:
Instead of money going to schools based on the number of economically disadvantaged students, the GOP wanted those federal dollars to become a voucher that attached to a poor child, irrespective of whether the public school attended by that child was performing well or badly.
This would have allowed federal dollars to be moved away from schools that might be doing excellent work, albeit within disadvantaged communities, to schools with no need for more money: schools in affluent areas with a mostly middle-class or wealthy student body.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that, within the next few years, the GOP proposal would have taken more than $3 billion from 33 large school districts serving high numbers of black and Hispanic children. Most of the money would have gone to the richest school districts.
There's more:
What is clear is that the House Republican hard line on vouchers ignited fears on the left of a slow death for all public education. Liberals speculated that the “portability” provision was a Trojan horse – and that it would eventually be extended beyond the public school system, allowing huge amounts of federal education money to end up in the hands of a few elite public, private and religious schools.
As a result, the hardliners got their wish. The Obama White House threatened to veto any bill with the “portable” voucher plan, on the basis that the proposal would cripple public schools in high-poverty areas.
Obama sure likes the status quo in the Chicago Public School system.
