This ReasonTV video discusses President Barack Obama’s resistance to preserving the successful school voucher program in Washington, D.C.

It notes how the program has benefited minority students by allowing them access to constructive alternatives to the District of Columbia’s dysfunctional public schools, such as the city’s Catholic schools.

About half of the 1,700 low-income students currently enrolled at schools through the federally funded voucher program attend Catholic schools.

Obama’s May 6 budget proposal would allow continued funding of the 1,700 low-income students currently enrolled at schools through the federally funded voucher program but would stop funding for any new students.

The Archdiocese of Washington said Obama’s plan will mean a slow death for the voucher program, CNS reported yesterday.

“The president, in his February address to a joint session of Congress, said it ‘will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education,’“ said archdiocesan spokeswoman Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill.

“He can fulfill this goal by fully funding the popular and proven Opportunity Scholarship Program into the future,” Weitzel-O’Neill said. “The program is a proven academic success, a lifeline for the children and a matter of justice.”