As we enter the final month of the 2021 legislative session CEAM parents and advocates continue to visit Jefferson City to talk to legislators about the need to give families more power over their children’s education.
For the past month, CEAM has been helping to organize weekly advocacy days at the capitol building, bringing dozens of supporters of parental choice from across Missouri to share their success stories and the need to make educational options available for more Missouri families.
Their stories and advocacy are critical as Missouri lawmakers are running out of time to pass school choice legislation and keep up with the freedoms being secured in other states like Kentucky and West Virginia this year.
Their message to lawmakers is clear… Missouri needs to fund students not institutions!
Jodie Freemyer, a parent with students in both public and private schools in the Kansas City metro area, said her family was making the sacrifice to pay for private school because she felt her kids did not fit into what was being provided by public schools.
“Both of my daughters struggle with dyslexia dysgraphia type stuff,” she said. “Both actually have very high IQs and are very intelligent it’s just very hard for kids that don’t fit that box to excel. I was a product of a private Christian school and when I looked at the curriculum at Summit Chrisitan Academy it was exactly how I was taught and that just really works for them. The level of support is hands down so amazing and different than the public school system.
“You’re valued as an equal member on a team to support your child and if there’s an issue whether it’s a teacher’s misunderstanding something or something’s not working for your child when you go and meet with that group of people it’s like a brainstorming session and everybody is on board,” she added. “When you do that at the public school which I still have to do with my 10th grader who has a full IEP at the public school it’s an arm wrestling session.
“Choice should never come down to “can I afford this or not?” because it’s all about the child,” she said. “Parents should have a choice and that choice shouldn’t be because what your checkbook says.”
Katie Rash, a parent in the Francis Howell school district, said she supports school choice because she knows that many Missouri students do not have access to a quality school and she is worried about what her child may learn at school.
“Parents know what is best for their own children,” she said. “I believe it’s very important for loving parents to have options about what they want to do as far as their child’s education. In my case, I would like to have my child have a Christian education and I would like for some of my tax money to be able to be used for me to send my child to a Christian school.
“We know that there are some people in some areas of our state that don’t have access to great quality education,” she added. “There might not be as many options as far as advanced coursework and things like that so I’d like to see all students have access to many different options.”
Julie Madsen, a parent and administrator at Summit Christian Academy, said that she was advocating for school choice to expand options for all children.
“I know the bills going through probably won’t personally affect my two children, but I want to be an advocate for all children and for parents to have a choice on where their kids go to school,” she said. “We get to pick which grocery store we go to and everything else and we should be able to pick what’s best for our child.”
Elizabeth Seitz, another Summit Christian Academy parent, said they moved their children to a private school when they saw that their children were not really learning in their district school.
“Almost within a semester my daughter made a complete turnaround,” Seitz said. “She had homework each night that was really specific and designed for her reading level. The same with my seventh-grader. He actually was recommended by his sixth grade teachers (in public school) to go to advanced math for junior high and when we did the entrance testing for Summit Christian he actually had to have a tutor all summer long just to be into general math.”
“It literally changed everything about our family,” she added. “It was life-changing for us. When you feel like you’re put in a box and that you don’t have any other options and maybe something isn’t working for, as a mother that’s devastating feeling. To be able to open that up to more parents and to say what is going to work best for your child or what is going to work best for your family just to be able to say okay I like this over here I think this fits our family dynamic I mean it’s just empowering.”
Eimee Cook, a parent from Lee’s Summit, said that parents should be able to use the taxes they pay for education to find a school that fits their child’s needs.
“I think that every child shouldn’t have to go to the school that their zip code is,” she said. “They should have the opportunity to take their tax dollars and go to a school that will serve them, educate them, and make them good citizens. I am supportive of children being able to go wherever that meets their needs. If they need help because of a disability they can get that help at a different school that’s not in their zip code. If they are on an education program for advanced kids they can go to a school that supports their learning habits. I think all parents should have the right to take their child wherever they want them with the taxpayer dollar that they are paying to that school district.”
If you would like to share your story in Jefferson City, please contact Cici Tompkins at cici@ceamteam.org.
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