Staff editorial in today's Washington Post:

SENS. JOSEPH I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) haven't given up on their bid to save the federally funded voucher program that allows low-income families in the District to send their children to private schools. We would like to see them succeed, but it's clear that President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress have already written the epilogue to this worthy program. Their disregard for how vouchers have helped children is so complete that it seems that the best chance, perhaps the only chance, for the program's survival is for local officials to step in.

The latest evidence of the administration washing its hands of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program is seen in the 2011 budget proposal it unveiled this week. It targets $9 million for the program but specifies that this will be "the final request" for federal funding. Administration officials say that the money, combined with unspent reserves, is sufficient to fulfill the president's promise that students currently in the program will be able to graduate from high school. That's disputed by the nonprofit that runs the program, which estimates that at least an additional $7 million is needed, along with a legislative commitment requiring the program's continuation for families currently enrolled.

Adding to the uncertainty is the disappointing decision by the Washington Scholarship Fund to drop its administration of the program. No one -- not administration officials or those with the scholarship fund -- could tell us what will happen to the approximately 1,300 students if there is no one to handle their scholarships. Indeed, one has to wonder whether the administration is banking on the possibility that students will drop out of the program. What easier way to get rid of this pesky program that's so despised by the teachers unions and other traditional allies of the Democrats? It's troubling that an administration that supposedly prides itself on supporting "what works" is so willing to pull the plug on a program that, according to a rigorous scientific study, has proven to be effective.

The best solution, of course, is the one sought by a bipartisan coalition lead by Mr. Lieberman for Congress to reauthorize the program. He is set to announce plans Thursday to offer the reauthorization as an amendment to legislation moving in the Senate, and he's hoping for help from Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), majority whip and chairman of the subcommittee that funds the program. Mr. Durbin gave lip service to his possible support but has been content for Congress to let the program go down the tubes.

Indeed, at one point, Mr. Durbin pretty much dared local officials to take over the program if they thought it was so important. The program is important to low-income families who see it as their children's only path to a good education. If the president and Congress won't see that, then we hope that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and the D.C. Council will.

A couple of weeks ago, in a post on this subject, I suggested that the folks opposing the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program lacked conscience. That attracted some very engaged knuckle-rapping from several commenters (at least two of whom are academics, and one of whom works in DC). How dare I do that!! And how self-discrediting I am to suggest that something besides pure motives animates the administration and Congress! My critics reminded me there are all sorts of good reasons to oppose a program like the DCOSP, and that the Washington folks who won't keep it alive are most probably in possession of them.

Well, I thought about that, and they are of course right. The thing about conscience is that it's not an internal moral arbiter of right and wrong (or, very rarely is it that). Mostly, it's the little thing inside us that starts buzzing when we need to rationalize our wrong-doing--or even define it away. Very few of us is capable of objective moral self-assessment--and of the recognition of major moral failings, and the humble work of change, that inevitably entails. We're very good at pointing out the failings of others--but we would not be able to live with ourselves if we were fully in touch (I mean fully in touch) with our own.

We might dabble in self-awareness, we might even make humility a personal value. But we still have big fat blind spots--and those are just as much the work of conscience as the proverbial twinges of awareness that conscience is said to deliver. We think of conscience as the thing that makes us feel guilty and ashamed when we are in the wrong--and that can make us do right. And it is that. But perhaps even more often, conscience is that thing that allows us to live with (even be blind to) the terrible things we do, think, and say.

To say "My conscience is clear" is to say nothing objectively about right and wrong--about real harm or damage one might have done. We can have a clear conscience and be totally in the wrong, blithely oblivious to the suffering we are causing or the principles we are violating. We are wired that way, I suspect, as a matter of basic survival. And so it is, I suspect, with President Obama, his administration, and the Congressional Democrats who, in the words of the Post, are so "willing to pull the plug" on an "effective" but "pesky" program that they "despise." They feel good about their choice--or are at least enjoying a nice, lotus-eating oblivion about the consequences of their choice for the lived lives of people with far fewer options in life than they have.

Years ago, I did some volunteer work for FIRE. It was an opportunity to look closely at their tactics for making colleges and universities eliminate their speech codes and treat people fairly. Their working motto was Justice Brandeis' comment that "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." The idea was that schools won't defend in public what they willingly do in private--and that they can essentially be shamed into doing the right thing when appeals to the law, their reason, and, yes, their conscience, don't work (shame being the attack on pride, rather than conscience per se). It's been a remarkably successful strategy for FIRE. And I find myself wondering whether we'll see a similar strategy in this increasingly desperate fight to keep the DCOSP alive.

UPDATE: In other news, Milwaukee reports that students receiving vouchers are 18 percent more likely to graduate from high school. The city's voucher program--which has endured major opposition from the unions since its inception--now supports 21,000 kids. Rock on, kids.