Obama Targeted for Ending D.C. School Program
posted by Loki on Oct.14.2009 at 10:05 am
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blackamericaweb.com
A controversial television ad airing in Washington D.C. criticizes President Barack Obama for eliminating a popular federal program that allows black, low-income students to attend private schools.
The new 30-second ad, called “Save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program,” has created a buzz among political operatives in the nation’s capitol and some say the spot – designed to put the squeeze on Obama – is making senior White House aides uneasy.
In fact, BlackAmericaWeb.com has learned that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has made a private appeal for the ad to be taken off the air immediately.
The D.C.-area ad features Kevin Chavous, a prominent black Washington attorney, and a young black public school student who makes an impassioned plea for Obama’s help.
“President Obama is ending a program to help low-income kids go to better schools, refusing to let any new children in,” Chavous says in the ad. “I’m a lifelong Democrat, and I support our president. But it’s wrong that he won’t support a program that helps our kids learn.”
The ad refers to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which started five years ago. The program has provided scholarships up to $7,500 for 3,300 low-income children to attend the private schools of their parents’ choice.
“We felt we had to do the ad because the administration has been promising to respond to this issue, but has failed to do so,” Chavous, a board member for D.C. Children First, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
“I have not heard officially from the administration,” Chavous said. “However, quite ironically, I saw [U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder at a Kennedy Center event … and he asked me to pull the ad.”
But will Chavous back off the ads?
“No, I will not have the ads pulled,” Chavous said. “In fact, we will probably go on bus stops and on metro trains.”
“Additionally,” he said, “we will probably run an ad with a parent making a direct plea to the president. As I said to Eric, when Obama agrees to support these kids, I will pull the ads, and maybe even run one thanking him.”
One political insider familiar with the situation told BlackAmericaWeb.com that White House aides are uncomfortable with the ad because they want to maintain Obama’s image as a president who is making education a top priority for all students, and disenfranchised black children in particular.
Standing alongside Chavous in the television ad is a black public school student who program officials say was denied entry into the Opportunity Scholarship Program by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
“President Obama, I need a good education right now,” the student says in the ad. “You can help. Do it for me.”
Calls and e-mails to the White House and the Department of Education seeking comment about the ad were not returned.
A recent independent study indicated that the program, which boosts student achievement in reading, is one of the most effective federally-funded education programs in recent history, according to officials.
Meanwhile, its supporters begin the television ad with a clip from one of Obama’s speeches: “We’re losing several generations of kids. Something has to be done.”
Chavous, a former D.C. Council member, is hoping to put the president and Duncan on the spot. Last month, he helped organize what was described as the largest-ever Capitol Hill rally in support of school choice and reauthorization of the scholarship program.
“I know Secretary Duncan well,” Chavous said, “and I believe that they are paralyzed by the status quo politics of education.”