Omnibus bill - kids lose, liberals win

Pete Chagnon and Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Disadvantaged children in the District of Columbia will be losing an educational lifeline if a new spending bill is passed on Capitol Hill. At the same time, abortionists and homosexual activists stand to gain from the Omnibus bill.

Dan Lips, a senior policy analyst with The Heritage Foundation, warns that the new Omnibus bill -- passed by the House on Wednesday essentially along party lines -- will terminate the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. Currently the program is serving 1,700 children with scholarships up to $7,500. "This program is simply changing their lives," states Lips. "It's giving these children who are among the poorest in the community in Washington, DC, an opportunity to attend a private school of their parent's choice." The benefits have been noticeable, says Lips. "[T]he evaluations that have been done of this program have shown that parents are more satisfied with their child's new school's safety and learning environment than they otherwise were when the child was in public school," he shares. "This is a program that is making a terrific difference in these children's lives."
Democrats inserted a measure in the bill to end the program officially. But Lips says the program should be expanded, not ended. "One of the things that shouldn't be forgotten is that since 2004 we've seen that applicants outnumber the available scholarships by a 6-to-1 margin," the policy analyst explains. "That means for every child who's received a scholarship, six more kids have applied. We need to be expanding this program, not ending it." Lips notes that Barack Obama was the recipient of such a scholarship when he was a child in Hawaii, and thinks the president should be supportive of such a program. According to The Heritage Foundation, more than 20,000 children -- roughly one-fourth of the District's public school students -- attend public charter schools in DC. In the 2007-2008 school year, more than 1,900 children attended private schools using tuition scholarships through the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. (Read Heritage report: 'Study Supports Expansion')

An open letter has been written to President Obama by some of the children who have benefited from the voucher program. The children urge Obama to support the program and not end it. A video has been released on YouTube that features the children reading the letter.
'Slush fund' for pet projects
Joining the ranks of groups opposed to the Omnibus spending bill is the Washington, DC-based group Concerned Women for America. The pro-life/pro-family organization notes that the bill includes a $7-million raise for Planned Parenthood, the non-profit, federally-funded abortion organization that makes a sizeable annual profit. In addition, says CWFA president Wendy Wright, it pumps $50 million into the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency she says is "intimately involved in the forced abortion, forced sterilization program in China."

The United Nations agency will receive the money regardless if it engages in coercive abortion activities. The pro-life activist cites several other objections to the legislation.

"This Omnibus bill would eliminate funding for school-choice programs that have helped to rescue children from dangerous and failing inner-city schools," says Wright. "[In addition] it has language that will reintroduce the Fairness Doctrine, and it has funding for controversial 'school bullying' programs which in the past have promoted homosexual programs to children."

The CWFA president criticizes the mind-set she sees in the current Congress. "Congressmen treat our income like their personal slush funds to spend on their pet projects and friends," she states in a press release. "Abortionists, liberals seeking to censor others, and homosexual activists will profit handsomely from this bill."

In short, says Wright, the Omnibus bill is loaded with spending for "liberals bent on destroying American values."