Wells and Raymond criticize 'federal subsidy for discriminatory and low-performing schools'

The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage publishes the full text of the letter from D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells and School Board President Lisa Raymond referred to in the previous post. That letter looks splendid to me. It says, in part:

We acknowledge that some of our publicly funded voucher students attend high-performing private schools. A small minority attend Sidwell Friends, St. Albans, and John Carroll High School. However, too many attend schools with fewer resources and lower standards than those of our public schools.

Furthermore, research has not shown significant improvement among voucher students or sufficient achievement gains over their peers that would justify the program. Rather, the latest research shows that academically disadvantaged voucher students–those from schools designated “in need of improvement” or with test scores among the lowest one-third of applicants–failed to demonstrate improved performance in private school over their public school peers.

In addition, as the Archdiocese of Washington, which operates Catholic schools in the District, made clear at recent hearings on legislation to enact marriage equality for same sex couples, they will not and currently do not recognize same sex couples or provide employee benefits for same sex spouses. It is their clearly espoused doctrine and practice to treat gay and lesbian employees differently from heterosexual employees. It is unclear if and how the doctrine is communicated to students. We oppose using public funds to support discriminatory practices in our city.

We hope you will join us in putting an end to this federal subsidy for discriminatory and low-performing schools. We would be pleased to further discuss our concerns, and those of the constituents we represent, with you or your staff, and we thank you for your leadership on this issue.

NOM and Gary Imhoff want the right to discriminate and teach discrimination using public funds. No way. Not in our city. Bravo to Wells and Raymond.