Vouchers

WASHINGTON -- In a new test of the Supreme Court's view of school vouchers to pay for parochial students' tuition, the state of Ohio asked a justice yesterday to let a Cleveland voucher program continue.A federal judge in Cleveland ruled in August that the program is probably unconstitutional and barred the state from providing vouchers to students who were to begin receiving them this school year.The program provides up to $2,500 a year for each student to attend a private -- including parochial -- school.

WASHINGTON -- Venturing onto potentially explosive political turf, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole called yesterday for abolishing public housing and issuing vouchers to tenants instead, so they might live anywhere they could afford.The likely Republican presidential nominee said government-owned housing is "one of the last bastions of socialism in the world." It has deepened poverty, he maintained, rather than reducing it."Housing vouchers, in my view, would enable poorer Americans to choose where they live, just like we do," Mr. Dole told the National Association of Realtors.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is casting his ambitious school reform proposal in simple terms: Choosing a school is the same right as choosing a job, a home, even a spouse.Few disagree with the philosophy behind his call for radical change in Baltimore's faltering schools, but what bothers critics is how the choice will be made.The possibility of handing out vouchers to defray tuition costs at private and parochial schools has generated the most controversy since Mr. Schmoke announced this week that he wants to force the public schools to improve through competition.

With the switch to all-digital television exactly a year away, vouchers to defray the cost of converter boxes necessary to keep older sets working will begin hitting the mail this week - and officials are urging people to request them early, as they are going fast. The federal government is offering each family up to two $40 vouchers to purchase the boxes, which will translate digital broadcast signals so they can be viewed on analog TVs. But the number of requests for the vouchers has been higher than predicted, raising concerns that the $1.5 billion set aside by the government might not be enough to meet consumer demand.

Minutes before Karen Kolan arrived at Columbia Medical Plan off Thunder Hill Road for a scheduled pediatrics appointment, the doctor was called away on an emergency.Staff members apologized for the inconvenience -- and gave the Ellicott City woman a $5 voucher for her trouble.Ms. Kolan said the staff did "all they could do" under the circumstances -- "apologize and give me a voucher."That voucher, and thousands like it, are the core of an unusual program intended to demonstrate the health plan's commitment to prompt service.

WASHINGTON -- Proponents of the most purely reactionary cause in contemporary politics -- resistance to school choice, particularly for poor children poorly served by inner city schools -- are waging a ferocious rear-guard fight against fairness. Consider recent developments in Florida and California. A three-judge Florida appeals court unanimously reversed a trial court ruling that held the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program violated the state's constitution. The trial court can be consoled by the fact that its decision did not result from hard work -- much of it was lifted almost verbatim from a proposed opinion submitted by teachers unions.

WASHINGTON - In the first weekly radio address of his presidency, George W. Bush signaled anew yesterday that he might be willing to budge on the most contentious dimension of his education plan: federally financed vouchers that students in failing public schools could use at private institutions. Bush cast that idea as an effort to give "better options" to the parents of students in schools where student performance was consistently poor. But he then immediately acknowledged that there were "some honest differences of opinion in Congress about what form these options should take."

WASHINGTON -- Deepening the division among courts about the legality of using public funds to pay for tuition at parochial schools, the Vermont Supreme Court yesterday struck down that kind of subsidy.Because this latest ruling on school vouchers was based only on the state constitution, it is binding and cannot be challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.But, by adding to a lengthening list of decisions on the issue, with differing results, the Vermont court put pressure on the Supreme Court to take on the dispute under the U.S. Constitution.

HAVILAND, Kan. -- Katie Britton has shown her daughter their destroyed home in Greensburg, so 2-year-old Eva Jo knows why they can't go back. But that doesn't make the ordeal any easier. So after picking up vouchers for gasoline and other expenses here, Britton found something else on a table of donated items. "I even got a little ball for her," said Britton, who taught third grade at Delmer Day Elementary School, also destroyed in last week's tornado. "She was so excited." Britton was one in a steady stream of tornado victims who visited a relief center set up in the Barclay College gymnasium by several government and nonprofit agencies.

A voucher program for panhandlers and the homeless is among recommendations for improving safety in downtown Baltimore, presented in a report today.The document surveys the major safety concerns of business and civic leaders looking to improve the image of the city's central business district. It also focuses on such issues as secure parking facilities, improved lighting, better police patrols and expanded community watch programs.The 18-page report, which was presented today to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, also recommends a system for reporting aggressive panhandlers to police.