The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program provides scholarships or vouchers to the neediest students in the U.S. capital. The vouchers, worth up to U.S. $ 7,500 per year, are granted through a lottery to students with family incomes, near or below the federal poverty line. Students can use their vouchers to attend any of 60 participating private schools in DC. The question that emerges is: Is this program fair? From the perspective of Rawlsian liberalism, an education program is fair if it can enlarge an equitable manner, the opportunities for all or at least improved prospects for affected groups, "disadvantaged".

Because OSP is a program for a particular group of students and not universally available for all students, in order to be considered fair, it must comply with the second condition in Rawls called "the difference principle".  The evidence from rigorous experimental evaluation of the program, suggest that the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program promotes the cause from social justice but has some limitations.

Vouchers, social justice, experimental design.