Colleen Hroncich
Earlier this week, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R‑NC) introduced the SOAR Act Improvements Act (H.R. 5181), a bill that would streamline and increase funding for the Washington, DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). As I recently noted in the Washington Times, “Generally, the Constitution gives the federal government no role in education, but there are a few exceptions. Since the Constitution gives Congress exclusive jurisdiction over Washington, the Opportunity Scholarship Program is one of those exceptions.”
The OSP was created in 2004 to help low-income parents in our nation’s capital choose private schooling for their children. The law that authorizes it divides a pool of funding among scholarships, DC Public Schools, and DC Public Charter Schools, with each sector receiving one-third. In recent years, that has equaled $17.5 million per sector.
Scholarships range from $10,000 for K‑8 to $15,000 for high school—far less than the more than $38,000 spent per student in DC Public Schools in FY 2025. The current funding level means only one percent of students in DC are able to access a scholarship.
One of the most significant changes in Rep. Foxx’s bill involves the allocation of funds. If enacted, the Opportunity Scholarship Program would receive half of appropriated funds, with the school district receiving one-sixth and charter schools one-third. At current funding levels, that would increase the scholarship budget to just over $26 million, which could provide scholarships to around 700 additional students.
The legislation would also allow funds to be used for pre-kindergarten. There are pros and cons to this. On one hand, religious schools can’t participate in DC’s universal preK program. A small number of non-religious private organizations participate through the Pre‑K Enhancement and Expansion Program. Allowing preK scholarships would give private providers a more even playing field in terms of attracting families.
On the other hand, I suspect there’s a lot more interest in K‑12 scholarships than current application numbers indicate. Given the low levels of funding, the scholarship administrator, Serving Our Children, doesn’t do much outreach. Despite that, more than 900 students who applied for the current school year were turned away because there were no scholarships left. Widening the pool of potential applicants without significantly increasing the funding may not be ideal.
On the provider side, the SOAR Act Improvements Act would encourage new schools to participate. Currently, a school must be accredited before it can join the OSP. Rep. Foxx’s bill would give new schools five years to become accredited. This is an important change because it would allow schools to ramp up by accessing funding while pursuing accreditation.
The new legislation also includes several changes that would streamline the program in various ways. It would broaden the standardized tests that can be used to evaluate participating students. Evaluations of the program, which are conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences, would not have to occur annually and would have more flexible requirements. And the annual reports by Serving Our Students or a future program administrator would be simplified.
“School choice has the power to improve the lives and trajectories of our nation’s future leaders—there’s no question or debate about it. Washington, DC, is a prime example of where school choice is working in our nation,” noted Rep. Foxx in a statement after introducing the bill. “The SOAR Act Improvements Act … reauthorizes the program for an additional seven years while providing program administrators increased flexibility to run the program efficiently. It also improves how funds appropriated from Congress are allocated within the program.”