America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids: School Choice for Students in Underperforming Public Schools. Backgrounder Number 1939

In 2006, President Bush proposed the America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids initiative in his budget request for the Department of Education. The plan would make $100 million available in competitive grant awards to provide scholarships to low income students in persistently failing public schools. Only low-income students attending public schools that are in the "restructuring" phase of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) would be eligible to participate. Restructuring occurs when schools fail to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) for six consecutive years. The America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids initiative would provide better opportunities to an estimated 23,000 students and demonstrate the positive benefits of student-centered education reform. Millions of American children are not receiving a quality education in their current public schools. If roughly 30 percent of the nation's 8th graders in public schools are scoring "below basic" in math and reading, the current public school system is leaving behind approximately 14 million students. Many of these students could benefit from the opportunity to attend schools of their parents' choice. The report asserts Congress should provide families with greater ability to choose their children's schools. The Bush Administration's America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids initiative would provide real school choice to American parents. In addition to helping these children, the Opportunity Scholarship initiative would provide a model for how federal, state, and local policymakers can provide better educational opportunities for America's disadvantaged students through student-centered reforms. Sections in the report include: (1) The Need for Opportunity Scholarships; (2) The America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids Initiative; (3) Millions of Children Trapped in Underperforming Public Schools; (4) Examples of School Districts That Could Benefit; (5) Strong Demand for School Choice among Low-Income Families; and (6) The Benefits for Students. (Contains 20 endnotes and 3 tables.)