DC Opportunity Scholarship Program
2019 marked the 15th anniversary of the Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).
The enactment of this program was a bipartisan effort by people who had but one goal – helping children in the District of Columbia get a better education. They created a three-sector federal initiative to improve public schools, provide crucial funding DC’s charter schools, and establish the OSP to provide scholarships for children in low-income families to attend the District’s private schools.
The results tell us that the OSP has been one of the best investments the federal government has ever made in helping children from low-income families get a quality education.
In 2010, an independent 5-year study found that the use of a DC OSP scholarship increased the likelihood of high school graduation by 21 percentage points. Over the years, 90% of OSP graduates have gone on to attend a college, university, technical school or the military.
The OSP was enacted with the notion that all children can achieve if given the opportunity. The average family income for an OSP family is $22,000 per year. 95% of the students are African American or Latino. Since 2004 more than 21,000 D.C. students have applied.
DC Parents for Opportunity Bowling Nights
OSP 15th Anniversary Celebration, U.S. Department of Education
Miss Virginia Movie DC Premiere
D.C. Parents for Opportunity Summer BBQ
