Photo by SpecialKRB

A popular program that allows D.C. public school students to receive tuition for private school education has had its funding cut under President Obama’s 2013 budget.

The Heritage Foundation wrote on its blog yesterday that Obama has cut funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, under which some 1,600 public school students have received $8,000 each annually towards private school education. The program was created in 2004 and functioned until 2009, when Democrats in Congress threatened to cut off funding. Republicans reinstated funding for the program last year.

The scholarship program has always been something of a political football. Some local officials and national public school advocates have argued that it takes necessary funding away from public schools, while proponents, both locally and nationally, have said that it provides a vital alternative to poor families in a city with notoriously bad schools. During a hearing on the Hill last year on the program, Mayor Vince Gray came out against it while D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown testified in favor of it.

A 2007 study of the program’s first years found no statistical difference in test scores between students that took the tuition and those that remained in public schools, but parents’ satisfaction and perception of school safety improved. Still, as one advocate pointed out last year, some 9,000 parents signed up for the 3,300 slots available in the first five years of the program.

Given its bipartisan support, Congress could well reinstate the program’s funding. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) tweeted today that he was “very disappointed to see Pres. budget zeroes out funding for DC Opportunity Scholarship Program” and was “committed to ensuring that this valuable program gets the support it needs and deserves from Congress.”