School Choice/Trust Parents

I know it's been a really long time since I have posted here, but I find that I have become very comfortable in my homeschooling and don't see much as new to post for those of you who read this blog.  I apologize for that.  Also, I am also trying to become a successful and, hopefully published, writer in addition to homeschooling my two remaining school age children and that requires a lot of my time.  I also have two other blogs, one for my writing, and another on healthy eating/living.  I rarely publish on the healthy eating/living one either.  There just aren't enough hours in a day to do all of the things I feel I should be doing, so I have to prioritize.

Today, however, something new happened that I thought would be important to share here.  Today is "School Choice" Day, and I attended a small School Choice Rally this morning at Demme Learning, the creators of Math-U-See, and now, Spelling-U-See.

What is "School Choice"?  You may ask.  It is concerned citizens, parents, politicians, etc., who are trying to find ways to make it possible for ALL parents to be able to choose the best place for their child(ren)'s education, be it private school, private Christian school, public school, or homeschool.  Right now only people who can afford to choose have the ability to choose where their child(ren) are educated, but what about those who live in poverty or the single parent working two jobs to put a roof over their heads and food on the table -- shouldn't they be able to choose the best possible education for their child(ren) too?  Do we not think that those parents don't care as much for their child(ren) and their child(ren)'s future as the parents who can already afford to make a school choice?

The CEO, and a couple of other Demme Learning employees, including my oldest son, a lady from a local Christian school and Senator Ryan Aument all spoke on this topic at the School Choice rally:

                                                Ethan Demme, CEO of Demme Learning                                                    

Senator Ryan Aument

Lady from Dayspring Christian Academy

My son, Anthony, PR Assistant at Demme Learning

Amy Spencer, Marketing Director at Demme Learning

All of the speakers did a wonderful job, and another key piece that was talked about was "Trusting Parents".  Because parents know and love their child(ren) and want better for their children than they, themselves, had, they should be trusted to know what is best for their child(ren) and to make the best choice for them.  

The lady from Dayspring Christian Academy gave information on some Tax Credit programs that are available to help parents be able to get their child(ren) into private schools they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.  It has to do with businesses contributing to the schools.  I don't know if these programs are available in all states, but they are available here in Pennsylvania.  You can find out more about the EITC (Educational Improvement Tax Credit) program here and the OSTC (Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit) progam here.  

Senator Ryan Aument wants to get the community to work together to make the necessary changes to enable ALL parents to be able to have School Choice because he Trusts Parents.  He also spoke about the fact that public schools that are failing are concerned about what would happen to them if everyone was able to implement School Choice, and Senator Aument is aware that they could face a decrease in students, but he has ideas for solutions.  He gave a very visual picture to stress his point about school choice when he said that he vividly remembers learning about June 11, 1963 and seeing the photo of Senator George Wallace standing blocking the doorway of the University of Alabama to prevent two black students from entering to get a better education, and Senator Aument said, "We are standing blocking the doorways of the failing schools and preventing students from leaving, which is just as much of an injustice."