Ensign, Demint Urge Obama To Support Low-Income Students

Senators John Ensign and Jim DeMint today (March 5, 2009) urged President Barack Obama to oppose efforts by Democrats in Congress to send low-income students back to poorly performing schools because of political priorities.  If the omnibus spending bill passes, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship will not receive funding after the 2009 – 2010 school year.  This measure is designed to kill the program, but Ensign will be putting forward an amendment to preserve it.

 “Children should not be limited on the education they receive simply because their parents do not have the financial means necessary to pay for an elite private school,” said Ensign, Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.  “In drafting the omnibus spending bill, Democrats put their political agenda ahead of educating our children.  Today I hope we have a vote to keep low-income children in the schools they want to attend.”

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program allows low-income parents to receive a voucher for their children to attend a better performing private school.   At a Capitol Hill press conference today, Senators Ensign and DeMint, along with Senators Jon Kyl and Lamar Alexander, spoke out in support of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

"Parental choice over where children attend school should not be limited to a privileged few," said Senator DeMint. "This program has given poor and helpless children hope, but Democrats are willing to sacrifice those hopes – and those children – to their rigid ideology. Democrats want to lock poor students in the steerage of a sinking ship. Killing D.C. School Choice will strangle opportunity in its crib.”

Ensign’s amendment ensures that low-income families in D.C. are provided with the opportunity to send their children to a private school, just like President Obama has selected for his children.

Ensign Statement on Dem Introduction of Job-Killing “Employee No Choice” Act

“I will not rest until this bill is dead”

Senator John Ensign, Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, today (March 10, 2009) released the following statement as Democrats prepare to introduce big labor's top legislative priority, the so called Employee Free Choice Act:

 “Liberal Democrats have been waiting for an opportunity to pay back the unions and now the unions’ number one demand—the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, is finally here. This is the worst possible time for this bill between its job killing consequences and its destruction of the rights to have a secret ballot election and bargain in good faith without outside interference,” said Ensign. “I am appalled by the Democrats’ decision to introduce this bill. I will not rest until this bill is dead.”

The Employee Free Choice Act's title is the first misleading part of the bill.  The legislation takes away a worker's right to a secret ballot in union organizing – a right that this free nation was built on and a right that is part of our history and Democracy.  Instead, it provides a "card check" process, which could lead to aggressive intimidation tactics by union bosses. 

Ensign Votes Against Spending Bill

“Congress is the only one not cutting budgets.” – Sen. John Ensign

Senator John Ensign, Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, today (March 10, 2009) voted against a bill that costs more than $400 billion and includes too much wasteful spending.

 “Families are cutting their budgets.  Businesses, small and large, are cutting their budgets.  State and local governments are cutting their budgets,” said Ensign.  “Congress is the only one not cutting budgets.  We are doing the exact opposite.”

Today Ensign voted against a plan to spend $408 billion, an historic 8-percent increase over last year.  This is the largest one-year hike in annual spending since the Carter Administration, with the exception of funding immediately after September 11, 2001. 

Recent estimates put the federal deficit at $1.2 trillion, the largest single year deficit in post-World War II American history.

 “You can’t tell me that there’s no waste in Washington,” said Ensign.  “We just spent a trillion dollars on a ‘so-called’ stimulus bill.  A little extra time to get this one right would have gone a long way.”

The combined funding for agencies included in both today’s spending bill and the recently passed stimulus bill totals $680 billion.  This is an 80-percent increase in spending for these programs that received funding in both bills.

Ensign led efforts to cut spending by offering an amendment to send the bill back to committee requiring a reduction in spending by identifying wasteful programs.

Obama and the Schools

It's time to stand up to the teachers' unions

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last week that poor children receiving federally financed vouchers to attend private schools in Washington, D.C., shouldn't be forced out of those schools. Bully for Mr. Duncan. But the voice that matters most is President Obama's, and so far he's been shouting at zero decibels.

His silence is an all-clear for Democrats in Congress who have put language in the omnibus spending bill that would effectively end the program after next year. Should they succeed, 1,700 mostly black and Hispanic students who use the vouchers would return to the notoriously violent and underperforming D.C. public school system, which spends more money per pupil than almost any city in the nation yet graduates only about half of its students.

The D.C. voucher program has more than four applicants for every available slot. Parental satisfaction is sky high. And independent evaluations -- another is scheduled for release later this month -- show that children in the program perform better academically than their peers who do not receive vouchers. This is the kind of school reform that the federal government should encourage and expand.

The Senate hasn't yet approved the spending measure, and there's nothing stopping the popular President from asking Democratic leaders to reconsider their voucher phase-out. Mr. Obama signed a stimulus bill last month that spends some $100 billion on education. But by not asking unions for anything in return for the money, he missed an historic reform opportunity. This time he could at least publicly back Mr. Duncan and D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who's also expressed concern that ending the program would relegate low-income kids to failing schools.

It's no surprise that the Obamas opted out of D.C. public schools for their own daughters and instead chose an exclusive private institution. Come on, Mr. President, find your voice for families of lesser means. See article HERE.