The private-school-voucher program for the District of Columbia would continue for another year, under a budget plan approved by a key U.S. House panel, despite recent questions about the

program’s future. The full House Appropriations Committee on June 25 approved by a voice vote a spending measure that includes $14.8 million for the school voucher plan in fiscal 2009, the

same level as in the current fiscal year. The program, which uses federal funds to pay private school tuition for about 1,900 low-income families in the nation’s capital, awaits action in

the full House and in a Senate committee.