CNSNews.com - Administration Again Cuts Funding for Scholarship Program That Helps Low-Income D.C. Kids

CNSNews.com - Administration Again Cuts Funding for Scholarship Program That Helps Low-Income D.C. Kids: "(CNSNews.com) - In his fiscal 2011 budget, President Barack Obama makes further cuts in funding for the District of Columbia's Opportunity Scholarship Program for low-income, mostly minority students.

Obama stopped funding altogether for the OSP in his 2010 fiscal year budget, but after protests from parents and school choice advocates, the administration decided to let children already receiving scholarships continue to do so until they graduate from high school.

In the new budget, however, funding for the OSP is slashed by $4 million -- from $13 million to $9 million – $1 million of which is for administrative costs.

The administration has said the money is enough to keep the president's pledge, but critics charge that the cut in funding is another sign that the president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are dedicated to ending the program, which began in 2004 as a way to allow disadvantaged children to attend high-performing private schools they otherwise could not afford."