Schooling the Capital

TIFFANY DUNSTON may come from a poverty-line background, but she appears to have a bright future. On May 22, this African American scholarship student graduated as valedictorian from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. Her class-topping grade-point average of 4.1 earned her a spot at Syracuse University, which she plans to attend in the fall. She’d like to major in biochemistry.

What’s a wonder for Dunston, however, is a heresy for the powerful teachers’ unions that hold so much sway in the Democratic party. At a hearing on April 30, D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton reiterated her longstanding opposition to the school-choice scholarships, which are funded through the 2008-09 school year but not beyond. “This is scary for us,” says Virginia Walden Ford, who leads D.C. Parents for School Choice, a grassroots group. “The children of single mothers and working-class parents deserve to have this program renewed.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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TIFFANY DUNSTON may come from a poverty-line background, but she appears to have a bright future. On May 22, this African American scholarship student graduated as valedictorian from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. Her class-topping grade-point average of 4.1 earned her a spot at Syracuse University, which she plans to attend in the fall. She’d like to major in biochemistry.

What’s a wonder for Dunston, however, is a heresy for the powerful teachers’ unions that hold so much sway in the Democratic party. At a hearing on April 30, D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton reiterated her longstanding opposition to the school-choice scholarships, which are funded through the 2008-09 school year but not beyond. “This is scary for us,” says Virginia Walden Ford, who leads D.C. Parents for School Choice, a grassroots group. “The children of single mothers and working-class parents deserve to have this program renewed.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.