Recently students and supporters protested a move to kill DC's wildly successful voucher program. A recent DOE study found that after three years in private schools, students who entered the program at its inception were 19 months ahead in reading of applicants still trapped in DC's public schools-and at half the per student cost. Naturally, Barack Obama himself sees the value in private education. He himself was a scholarship recipient as a youth, and sends his kids to private schools, just as this program attempts to do for the rest of DC.