Things are not always as we expect them to be, and that lesson was particularly true this past week in two separate worlds: the world of education reform and the world of reality television.

What do I mean that "things are not always what they seem"? Let's start with the reality TV world and see how that sheds light on a significant decision by the Obama Administration to effectively end the controversial DC Voucher program. Here's a clip from the British equivalent of American Idol that has been drawing rave reviews lately--trust me when I say it will be unexpected:

Alright, so how does that important life lesson from Ms. Susan Boyle--that things are not always what they seem--apply to the world of education?

Last month, without much attention at all, the Democratic Congress and President Obama moved swiftly to end a program that currently sends over 1,700 Washington DC public school students--many of them from low-income families--to area private schools. The program, now in its fourth year, has long been opposed by Democrats and teachers unions, while drawing most of its support from Republicans. So at some level, the decision to halt funding for the program after next school year couldn't have been that much of a surprise given the outcome of the 2008 election.

But the Congress and the President's joint decision to terminate the program cast a deep shadow over two important considerations--much the same as Susan Boyle's physical appearance kept hidden a remarkable talent. The first consideration is that, put simply, the voucher program works. The students who applied for and received vouchers (in the amount of $7,500, distributed randomly by lottery) to attend nearby private schools performed significantly better than control group students who applied for the voucher lottery but did not win and consequently attended traditional public schools. The difference in academic achievement was statistically significant in reading--a more than three month average advantage for the private school students as opposed to the control group public school students. There was also a slight--but not statistically significant---advantage in math scores, along with a substantial difference in parent satisfaction (but similar results in student satisfaction surveys).

To be sure, this isn't the only study out there about vouchers and their impacts on students, and much of the rest of the data is at controversial to say the least. But the study that I linked to above was commissioned by the Department of Education itself, not some right-wing school choice organization.

Now it's one thing to have a spirited debate over whether vouchers work and to reject funding for the program as a result, but what the Administration did instead is disconcerting: it hid the results of the study while Congress was debating the fate of the program last month! Upon releasing the results last week, a handful of news agencies have expressed disappointment in the Administration's decision to keep hidden this valuable information about the program's effectiveness that might have changed the nature of the funding debate. Alas, the upshot is that some 200 families who were already told earlier this spring that their children would receive the vouchers to go to private schools next school year have since been told that the Federal government is reneging on that promise.

Which brings us to the second *arguable* things-are-not-what-they-seem lesson courtesy of Britain's Got Talent to the education reform world: Maybe President Obama and Secretary Duncan are not the honest and bold reformers as has been advertised after all?