Democrats put the teachers union above helping schools that took inevacuees

Washington Times:

Rep. John A. Boehner, circumventing his own committee, is pushing ahead with a proposal to reimburse public and private schools that took in students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The panel defeated the proposal Thursday.
"It is an outrage that House Democrats and the education establishment would stand in the way of meaningful relief for the victims of hurricanes," said the Ohio Republican, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee. The panel defeated his proposal 26-21 after Democrats complained it was a thinly veiled attempt to create a voucher system for religious schools.
Mr. Boehner -- who said the measure is the fastest way to cut through red tape and get relief to the schools that need it -- is asking the House Budget Committee to include the proposal in a broad budget package expected for a House vote in coming weeks.
His school-reimbursement proposal would assign account numbers to displaced parents, and they could pass them along to any school they choose for their children, including private religious schools. The school then would apply directly to the government for reimbursement of up to $6,700 per student for the 2005-06 school year.
"Is providing these funds through the layers upon layers of education bureaucracy the best way to achieve this goal? Of course not," Mr. Boehner said.

...

Mike Franc, vice president of government relations for the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Boehner's proposal is still alive and is "probably the most ambitious school-choice proposal ever introduced in Congress," because it places control in the parents' hands.
He said Republicans should expect to feel some "natural turbulence" as they advance bold ideas after Hurricane Katrina, and he urged President Bush to "feel a little ownership" over the school proposal and "make a few phone calls" to build its support on Capitol Hill, just as he did when he pushed the Medicare prescription-drug program through Congress.

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