Biden school choice decision shows Democrats value spoils of identity politics more than the agenda of black voters

There are few choices parents make more important than where to send their children to school. The Biden administration's recent proposal to eliminate a popular voucher program would make that decision a lot harder for low-income black families in the nation's capital.

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) was created by Congress in 2004 after local parents organized an effort to provide education options for low-income parents. The program has since become a political football. President Obama, whose own daughters attended Sidwell Friends for $40,000 per year, wanted to eliminate the program. He was opposed at every turn by Republicans in Congress. President Trump proposed an increase to the program, and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, publicly affirmed the view that parents — not politicians or government bureaucrats — know what their children need to succeed academically. Now the Biden administration plans to phase the program out in 2023, which would allow current students to finish at their current schools and prevent new students from enrolling in the program.

Joe Biden won 92% of the vote in D.C. and slightly more in the wards where most voucher students live. I wonder if some voters would have made a different choice at the polls if they knew Biden's decision would prevent their younger children from participating in the same program that rescued their older children from failing schools. Those choices matter in a city where less than 30% of black students are reading and doing math at grade level.