May 23, 2001

Union Of Orthodox Jewish Congregations
Expresses Disappointment With House Voucher Vote

In the wake of a vote in the House of Representatives rejecting an amendment offered to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which would have created a $50 million school choice demonstration program, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, through its Institute for Public Affairs, expressed its disappointment with the vote.

Institute director Nathan Diament issued the following statement:

The Orthodox Jewish community is disappointed that a majority of members of the House could not support an amendment that would have allocated new resources to an experiment that would find out what policies might be of benefit to America's children and our education system. We are hopeful that the Senate will take a more serious approach to this question when it takes up a demonstration project proposal to be offered on the ESEA. The demonstration proposals answer all of the critics' concerns - they use new money to fund the program and they are only used by localities whose elected leaders wish to create such a program. We hope the Senate will support this sensible proposal.

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