As Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pointed out in the Washington Post today, Democrats, in principle, are mostly opposed to school vouchers. However, they have been for "Section 8" housing vouchers. This federal voucher system, enacted in the early 1990’s and carried out by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, is designed to get predominantly black families out of the urban projects and into safe neighborhoods.

But in a controversial Atlantic magazine piece, Hannah Rosin explores whether the HUD program is actually leading to yet more urban danger zones. Rosin speaks with residents in Memphis who say that when residents move away from high-crime housing projects the gangs and violence move with them. (more…)

Who is the chief defender of President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" test-based education policy? Let’s spell it out: S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G-S. Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education and a cross-country evangelist for NCLB, took her act to the Washington Post’s editorial page today.

Spellings specifically argued for keeping a federally-funded school voucher system in Washington, D.C. that Congress might squash. Public money to let children attend private, often religious, schools was a chief conservative ideology when the Republicans controlled Congress. With the Democrats in charge, though, Spellings pleads for lawmakers to scrap ideology and vote for what works.

But do such vouchers work? Spellings’ arguments are not entirely unpersuasive. But she doesn’t say enough about the children left behind in poorly performing public schools.-MB

The negotations between the State Dept. and the Iraqi government about further U.S. presence in Iraq shows who Washington considers the most revered government employees. The Washington Post’s Sudarsen Raghavan and Karen DeYoung report that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants a timetable for when U.S. troops will be out. But the State Dept., a Pentagon spokesman, and both major presidential candidates oppose a timetable that goes against the consultation of commanders on the ground.

This raises a number of questions that should be asked while the negotiations continue. Does the prevailing U.S. political position reflect a real admiration of ground commanders’ judgment, or a way of passing on responsibility? Do the ground commanders have the ability or inclination to go against President Bush, who fiercely opposes timetables?

And what does Secretary of Defense Robert Gates think of all this? Gates is not publicly for a timetable. But unlike Bush and David Petraeus, he’d like more troops out of Iraq now (and moved to Afghanistan).-MB

The Washington Post’s N.C. Aizenman lays out the problems that could result from a botched 2010 census. The Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau will not get the electronic hand-held devices they planned on by 2010, meaning that government employees will have to go door-to-door with pen and paper recording vital demographic information.

This information dictates Congressional representation and how some federal funds are given. It also provides a look at how America’s demographics are changing. Which means that if the census doesn’t work new immigrants are literally not counted. Check back in 2010.-MB

The deadline for the $50,000 Understanding Government Prize for Preventive Journalism is fast approaching — entries are due July 15.  Articles (individual or series) must have been published in a U.S. newspaper or periodical between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 and must describe significant social problems and analyze potential solutions.  Relevant topics will include:

– emerging problems that threaten to explode into major crises or

– existing public problems that can only be resolved through fresh approaches. 

Articles must assess government’s role in handling the problem.  

The award will be given at an event in September 2008 in Washington, D.C.  For more information please click here or call Ned Hodgman at (202) 783-2439.