The District school board president's newfound support for a school voucher
program advocated by the Bush administration drew sharp criticism yesterday
from educators, elected leaders and parent advocacy groups.

Peggy Cooper Cafritz, who only last month declared the board "solidly
against vouchers," said in an op-ed piece published Saturday in The
Washington Post that "some version of" the administration-backed
legislation funding a pilot project here is "certain to pass" and that D.C.
officials should "accept the federally proposed voucher or scholarship
program."

But Cafritz said the District should insist that vouchers be used only in
private schools within the city; that Catholic archdiocese schools -- the
most likely beneficiaries of the program -- be held accountable for test
scores and high academic standards; and that officials continue to support
traditional public schools and charter schools.

"I was shocked, and everybody I've talked to is shocked," said Del. Eleanor
Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). "What Peggy has proposed is unprincipled and
operationally impossible, and it won't happen."

Support for voucher programs, which provide public money to send children
to private schools, is rare among big-city school officials. District
leaders questioned why Cafritz would strike out on her own.

"This is not the sort of thing we need to Lone Ranger about," said council
member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6). "Quite frankly, if Peggy would tend to
her responsibilities as president of the board and make sure we didn't have
hundreds of employees we couldn't account for and leave overall city
policymaking to the mayor and council, we might all be better off."

Parent and teacher advocates were also distressed.

"I find it absolutely disappointing that anybody in this community believes
we have to accept vouchers," said Iris Toyer, president of the Stanton
Elementary School PTA in Southeast Washington and co-chairman of Parents
United for D.C. Schools. "To me, it's just a diversion. We strongly believe
[vouchers] do nothing to improve the quality of education for the
overwhelming number of children in this community."

Added Frank Bolden, president of the principals' union: "My opinion is we
don't need them. What we need to do is make some substantive changes in our
own public school system so we can be about the business of educating
children."

Cafritz did not return telephone calls yesterday.

The embattled school board president had at least one supporter. Laura D.
Gardner, an at-large board member appointed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams
(D), said: "The concept of vouchers doesn't frighten me one bit. I view it
just as I view charter schools: Public education needs competition."

Cafritz's apparent change of heart was a surprise to supporters and critics
of the voucher program. Gardner said the issue had not been formally
discussed by the board.

"It's a big shift," agreed council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7), head
of the panel's education committee. "I'm hopeful and confident she was
motivated by her commitment to young people in the city."

Chavous has been a skeptic of vouchers, but yesterday he said his main
concern is that such programs be adopted locally and not imposed by the
White House and Congress. "If we're going to expand school choice into
vouchers, there has to be a grass-roots public discussion."

So far, the District has chosen to offer public charter schools as a choice
to its 69,000 schoolchildren. The city has 40 charter schools that operate
tuition-free, with public funds, outside the school bureaucracy.

"If there is a scholarship program put in place," Chavous said, "we
wouldn't support it coming from District funds and would be more open to it
if it's new federal dollars and there's additional support for the D.C.
public schools and [public] charter schools."

George C. Springer, administrator of the Washington Teachers' Union, could
not be reached yesterday, but the American Federation of Teachers, with
which the local union is affiliated, opposes voucher programs that transfer
tax dollars from public to private schools.

Norton also objects to that.

"There's one pot," she said. "What comes out of that pot for private
schools must come out of the public schools. [Cafritz] needs to go for
every penny she can find, not for dividing the pot between public and
private schools. Also, she doesn't know what she is talking about when she
says the bill will pass."

The notion of making Catholic schools publicly accountable, Norton said, is
also unworkable. "Religious schools can't make themselves accountable to
the state any more than the church can."

In February, President Bush said that as part of his 2004 budget proposal
he would ask Congress to institute a school voucher program in the District
and a select number of other cities. How much individual students would
receive remains unclear, but previous proposals have ranged from $3,000 to
$6,000.

Private school tuition in the District is about $15,000 to $23,000, with
Catholic schools charging $3,100 to $4,770.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company