My children attend Florida Virtual School Full Time, a public, free virtual school. We were interested in virtual school because it allows us, the parents, to actually be with our children and monitor what they’re learning and who’s teaching them.
Another perk is the flexibility. It gives us the freedom to schedule lessons in a way that works for us.
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When Kyle Stendel was struggling in the public school setting and battling anxiety and depression, his mother, Wendy Stendel, took it upon herself to find an alternative solution. She found the online school called Insight School of Minnesota, a public, online school for grades six to 12.
“It just allowed him that time to step away from the stressors that were going on in his original school setting and focus on healing him,” Wendy said.
Kyle started at Insight School in the eighth grade. Wendy said one of the most beneficial components of him attending the online school was the flexibility. He was able to go to his doctor appointments while still being able to view the recording of a class he may have missed from earlier in the day.
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In this season, Americans have much for which to be thankful. For many families, that includes school choice, which has allowed new opportunities and a path to success for their children.
Here are the stories some of the families who will be giving thanks for school choice shared with Watchdog.org.
Read them here.
By choosing Betsy DeVos as his nominee for the Department of Education, Donald Trump has proven his seriousness about increasing school choice and ending the Beltway’s micromanagement of local education. But whether the subject is charter schools, vouchers, distance learning, or education savings accounts, the teachers’ unions have cried foul. Their interest isn’t students, parents, or even individual teachers, but rather preserving their cut of the $670 billion K-12 market.
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Monte McGary is in third grade and he’s finally getting what he’s been in need of academically. A challenge.
Before enrolling in Washington Connections Academy this school year, Monte attended a brick and mortar school in the Battle Ground School District. Since kindergarten, he’s been more advanced than his peers. He was becoming bored in class on a regular basis.
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Sophia Perkins writes in the Deseret News:
I attend online school at Utah Connections Academy. There are many reasons as to why I am thankful for this school option: I am able to move at my own pace, I have done so much better than I did in traditional school, and it helps with my schedule. When I attended traditional high school, I wasn’t able to move at my own pace; sometimes I needed to go slower and other times I wanted to go faster. In online school I can take my time, and even if I fall behind I don’t feel pressured to constantly get caught up — this helps especially in math.
Online school, honestly, helped me become more successful in my academic career. I have a very time-dependent schedule. I am a teen parent, which I am proud of, and I am also working on getting a part-time job. Attending UCA helps me because I can work around my own schedule and at my own pace. The main reason I am thankful for UCA is the teachers and all their help. They always respond to every webmail I send, call me when I need them to, and help in live lessons. No matter how many times I ask, they are always very helpful.
Sophia Perkins
West Valley City
There are various views about public school choice coming out of the 2016 election. Some choice advocates view the Trump administration as more committed to school choice in all its forms than the Obama administration’s “pro-charter, anti-voucher” posture.
A less sunny view is based on elections results in “blue” Massachusetts and “red” Georgia, where voters in both states soundly rejected pro-school choice ballot initiatives. National surveys showing strong support for choice may be masking ambivalence or outright hostility at the state or local level.
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Washington County resident Bobbi Mackenzie Chambers remembers what renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber told her when they met for the first time.
The pint-sized tween walked into a room with a giant piano and began to sing “If Only You Would Listen,” her final audition song for a role in Lloyd Webber’s latest Broadway musical.
“The last two lines he said to me were, ‘You always wanted to be on Broadway? Well, welcome to Broadway,’” remembers Bobbi, 11.
Last year, she and her father moved from their home in Tigard to New York City to pursue that career dream.
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HANCOCK, Mich. (WLUC) - Like the internet that makes it possible, online learning has many applications. Types of courses vary, as well as the extent that students study online. Some do it full-time, but many use it as a supplement to traditional school. For example, high school senior Libby Rogan at Dollar Bay High School takes Spanish II online.
“I'm taking it because my school only offers one year of foreign language, and the colleges I'm applying to require at least two years,” she said.
Proponents, like Finlandia University officials, say online learning spreads resources across the country and world. The school runs several online classes designed for high school students who don't live near a university. They can dual-enroll in the courses for college credit.
Continue reading this article here.
An important element of this conversation, however, is the fact that not only do school choice programs empower parents and change students’ lives for the better, but they also save taxpayers money.
In our new report, The Tax-Credit Scholarship Audit, we looked at 10 tax-credit scholarship programs in seven states between 1997 and 2014. These programs serve 93 percent of all students participating nationwide. Tax-credit scholarships allow individuals and sometimes businesses to reduce their state tax liability by making a private donation to a nonprofit organization that in turn provides scholarships for children to attend private schools of their choice.
Read more here.