John Boehner’s legacy in the District
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Version 0 of 1. After the government shutdown in 2013, one of House Speaker John A. Boehner’s most loyal supporters created an advertising campaign in his defense. It was a cardboard cereal box decorated in pink and green with shiny stars. “Mr. Speaker is awesome,” one side read. “He does his job, so stay off his chest!” If the presentation seems a bit amateurish, cut the creator some slack: She was only 9 years old. Laci Joseph, who spoke at a gala for D.C. Catholic schools, is one of hundreds of children who know the departing Republican House leader not as Speaker Boehner, head of a dysfunctional caucus, but as Mr. Speaker, provider of scholarships and hot chocolate. When he steps down in October, Boehner will leave a legacy not just in official Washington but in the city itself, thanks to a private school voucher program he helped create and keep alive over the past 12 years. Through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, 6,252 low-income District students have gone to parochial or other private schools. Boehner’s passion for school vouchers began with his first political humiliation. Ousted from the leadership in 1998, he devoted himself to his committees. In 2001 he became chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, and worked with then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to pass No Child Left Behind. One of 12 siblings whose working-class parents scrounged to come up with Catholic school tuition, Boehner was a firm believer in private school vouchers. But he couldn’t get the votes to impose them nationwide. So he focused on the District, which often serves as a laboratory of sorts for congressional intervention, thanks to a unique system of federal oversight. In 2004, Congress approved $15 million to give up to $7,500 per year to low-income D.C. residents to cover private school costs. Having created the program, Boehner didn’t let it go. “He would go into every classroom in every school, every year, alone,” said Elizabeth McGrann, director of development at the Consortium of Catholic Academies. “He calls them ‘My kids.’ He knows them.” And they know him. Once, tasked with making a gift for the speaker, another 9-year-old made the chain-smoking congressman an ashtray. (“We decided to call it a candy dish,” McGrann said.) When he became speaker in 2010, his schedule and security made school visits too difficult. Instead, Boehner brought students to him, inviting them to attend the White House Christmas tree lighting, the State of the Union, the pope’s address last month. The speakership also helped Boehner preserve the voucher program in the face of political opposition. When President Obama took office in 2009, he wanted to end the program. Boehner was able to get it reauthorized and expanded to $20 million in 2011 as part of a budget deal with the White House. “It’s unquestionably a defining characteristic of the Boehner speakership,” said David Schnittger, who worked for Boehner for 21 years. “This is a topic very close to his heart.” Like his legacy inside Congress, Boehner’s legacy in the District is divisive. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has opposed the voucher program from the start. She has argued that it’s both unaccountable and has been unfairly thrust upon the District, whose Democratic leaders bristle at congressional intervention and — for the most part — have objected to using public funds for private school tuition. “I’m opposed to what amounts to a pet project that was imposed on the District without any consultation,” Norton said. “I can understand his devotion to Catholic schools, but the point here ought to be what is in the best interest of the District’s children.” A 2013 Government Accountability Office report found that the voucher program was poorly managed. A 2012 Washington Post investigation found that hundreds of students were going to uncredited or unconventional schools, including one run by the Nation of Islam that was based in a converted Deanwood home and another built around the philosophy of a Bulgarian psychotherapist. Tuition at most participating private schools is too high to be covered by the vouchers, according to the Department of Education. (Catholic schools are popular choices for voucher recipients, in large part because tuition there is often lower.) The program is opposed by teachers unions, who want to preserve public dollars for traditional public schools. And a 2010 study found no statistically significant improvement in math or reading skills for voucher recipients, though no evaluation has been done since that year. “The oversight has been very poor,” said Washington Teachers’ Union President Elizabeth Davis. “To reauthorize it when it’s not proven to work is not very smart, in my opinion.” However, students who received vouchers were more likely to graduate, and parents were more satisfied and believed their children were more safe. “They were failing her,” Sheila Jackson said of the Congress Heights elementary school her daughter Shawnee attended. “She wasn’t working at her full potential.” Her daughter used vouchers to attend a Baptist church school and then a small private high school. She’s now in college. A new administrator just took control of the voucher program, which is up for reauthorization next fall. Norton said she would like to phase out the vouchers and send funds to expanding charters. But Boehner hopes to fund the program through 2021 before he leaves office. “Is there another champion like that in the House right now?” asked John Schilling, chief operations officer of the pro-voucher American Federation for Children. “I don’t know.” McGrann predicted that even after he leaves the House, Boehner will be a presence in the lives of his “kids” and advocate for them. And maybe now the wish that 9-year-old Laci had for him back in 2013 will finally come true. “Mr. Speaker,” she said in her speech that year, “I hope the stress that you had has stopped now.” |