In 2003, Congress established the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program as a pilot, publicly-funded school voucher program.  Its original five-year mandate was renewed in 2008 and is likely to be renewed again in 2009.  The D.C. program has been subject to yearly evaluations by the Institute for Education Studies.  Its relative success is likely to shape the future of the debate over school choice.

The D.C. voucher program seeks to afford low-income students in the D.C. area the opportunity to choose between public city schools and area private schools. 

The voucher program offers $7,500 scholarships for low-income students to attend the private school of their choice.  Students from families earning under 185% of the poverty rate are eligible.  49 private D.C. schools participate in the program.  When the number of applicants exceeds the number of available scholarships, scholarship winners are chosen by lottery.

For its first five years, the voucher program has been allocated $13 million in federal funding.  The proposed 2009 budget for the program is $18 million.