D.C. Family Finds Voucher Journey Well Worth It

In Zackia's sixth-grade class of 13 students were frequent reminders that all students had to attend to their tasks. "If I have to advise you to get in your chair and get out your writing journal, it is not going to be pleasant," the teacher, retired D.C. public school educator Geraldine Weatherford, said to a boy who had not followed an earlier instruction.

The sixth-graders went to work immediately, following instructions on the blackboard: "In your writing journal, think of an 'issue' that bothers you. Write about this situation."

Nannie Burroughs has 24 voucher students this year. Like most private schools in the program, it does not provide bus transportation. But Washington Scholarship Fund officials said Hammond's transportation difficulties are unusual, since most voucher recipients attend schools much nearer their homes.

Hammond said she would like to buy a car so that she could drive her children to school, but she does not think she will be able to afford one for at least another year. This is Zackia's last year at Nannie Burroughs, which goes only through sixth grade. Hammond is visiting private middle schools that are part of the voucher program, hoping to find one closer to their home.

The struggle to get them to school has been worth it, Hammond said, because of Nannie Burrough's disciplined teaching, good standards and small class sizes. "I really think the school has been a good value," she said.

But that has not solved the problem of Zackia missing track practice. The mother of Zackia's father has a car and used to take her, but now the grandmother, who Hammond said is always very helpful, has a job that interferes with the track club schedule. That, coupled with the girl's long commute from school, has kept her out of the club.

The sixth-grader has not gotten over it. She spent very little time thinking of what to say in the essay for Weatherford's class.

She leaned over her paper, writing very neatly with a look of concentration on her face. "The issue that bothers me," she wrote, "is where my grandma said I can't run this year."