Federal money funds private schools.

For the first time in history, a federal program will finance private school vouchers. Washington, D.C., is the recipient of the five-year, pilot program, where low-income children will be eligible for tuition aid of up to $7,500 to attend religious of secular private schools in the city. Congress passed the program in late January.

The history of voucher challenges in other states and the decade-long debate of sending much-needed public money to private schools has come to a head.

U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said it is time that all parents who question the ability of schools to serve their children well have this choice. "The future of our children is at stake, and it would be unconscionable to work against their best interests ... and to actively labor to bring sabotage to this great program," Paige was quoted as saying in a speech at the Heritage Foundation.

D.C. Parents for School Choice, which represents thousands, adds that school choice is the only hope for a good education for poor black students in D.C. "On the march to educational freedom, D.C. parents are now one step closer to liberation from falling schools," Virginia Walden-Ford, executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, said in a statement.

Those who oppose the plan say that given public schools and education are in dire need of funds to begin with, sending federal dollars to pay for private schooling is ridiculous.

"Voucher advocates were able to find $14 million for vouchers for 1,700 students, yet could only scrape together an additional $13 million for the 65,000 students who attend D.C. public schools," stated Sandra Feldman, president of American Federal of Teachers.

Celia Lose, spokeswoman for AFT, adds that voucher programs that exist already in various states have not proven successful in raising student achievement, according to various studies. "What's worse, the voucher funding throws good money after bad," Feldman added.