(The Center Square) – Students in the District of Columbia, particularly from the less affluent areas, stand to gain if a proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives gets a signature from second-term Republican President Donald Trump.
The SOAR Act Improvements Act, known also as House Resolution 5181, reauthorizes the Opportunity Scholarship Program for an additional seven years. It provides scholarships to low-income families with children so they can attend private schools in the District of Columbia.
“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,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. “Washington, D.C., is a prime example of where school choice is working in our nation, and countless young men and women from low-income families are receiving a quality education that will propel them to new heights,”
Foxx said the program can run more efficiently through measures proposed in the bill.
“It also improves how funds appropriated from Congress are allocated within the program,” Foxx said. “This is an opportunity to do the right things for the right reasons, and I look forward to this legislation’s full consideration in the House.”
Foxx earned an undergrad and master’s at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her educational doctorate at UNC Greensboro. By trade, she was an educator at Caldwell Community College in Hudson and an instructor and assistant dean at Appalachian State in Boone prior to entering the political world.
The chairwoman of the Committee on Rules is a past chairwoman and member today on the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
District of Columbia students are often below national averages for The Nation’s Report Card, such as fourth grade reading assessments in 2022 and 2024, and math assessments in 2024.
