A Reading Program's Powerful Patron

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) steered $2 million in federal funding for a reading program for D.C. schools. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

D.C. administrators and teachers said in recent interviews that they found the Voyager program useful, even successful for certain students. But in 2005, when the District did a survey of educators to select a new systemwide reading program, Voyager did not rank among the top three. It remains in use at two dozen schools for summer programs and pupils reading below grade level.

Some school officials who did not know that Voyager came to their classrooms as part of an earmark expressed frustration with the congressional interference.

"What other school district in the country has to go through the labyrinth of red tape this school district goes through here?" asked Charles H. Harden Jr., principal of Park View Elementary School, one of the schools that used the Voyager program. Landrieu and Congress "shouldn't be dictating what we do here," he said.

Purse Strings

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Landrieu was one in a long line of congressional overseers of the District. Congress retains the right to approve the city's budget because it was the only way in 1973 that a powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. William Natcher (D-Ky.), would agree to grant the District home rule.

Two of the most sweeping D.C. education initiatives by Congress -- authorizing charter schools and approving taxpayer-supported vouchers for private and religious schools -- were imposed over the objections of school officials. Those programs provided families with alternatives but did not directly address the larger problems in the public system. More than a quarter of D.C. students have gone to charters, and administrators say that many of those left behind are the most difficult to educate.

Some D.C. officials said they were dismayed when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) reversed her opposition to vouchers and switched sides in 2000 to allow the program to be implemented, although she did not support vouchers in San Francisco, where she had been mayor. Feinstein said she backed the plan for D.C. schools because Mayor Anthony A. Williams had supported it.

"Local leaders should have the opportunity to experiment with programs that they believe are right for their area," she said at the time.

Landrieu, a major backer of charter schools in the District, sponsored a provision requiring the city to offer any surplus school property to public charter schools for at least 25 percent less than its appraised value before selling it to anyone else. D.C. school officials objected, saying that she had not consulted with local authorities first.

Voyager's Campaign

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Best, a Texas merchant banker and entrepreneur, began leveraging political connections almost as soon as he launched Voyager in Dallas in 1994. He hoped to tap into what he thought would be a burgeoning business as pressure built for universal testing and higher standards for public schools.

"I decided the world needed one more reading program -- one that worked," Best said.

When George W. Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1998, Best and his fellow Voyager investors contributed more than $45,000 to his campaign, and they gave more than $20,000 to his running mate. As Voyager grew, it hired several state education officials, including the Texas education commissioner under Bush. When Bush ran for president, Best signed up to join the Pioneers, an elite group of "bundlers" who pledged to bring in $100,000 for Bush. Best said he raised only about $10,000.

As president, Bush appointed former Houston schools superintendent Roderick Paige to be secretary of education, and Paige launched Reading First, a $1 billion-a-year reading program. To develop it, the Department of Education turned to some of the same researchers Best had hired to create Voyager's program.