Camellia Plosser, a product of school choice herself, is a homeschooling parent who enjoys the freedom that homeschooling allows. Camellia’s parents understood the need for parental choice, moving to the Joplin area for the sole purpose of enrolling Camellia in a particular private school.
“It required a lot of sacrifice,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of money by any means, but it allowed me to work at my own pace and I was able to graduate early.”
For her own children, Camellia decided homeschooling was the best option.
“I wanted to have a little more control over what they were getting not only in terms of curriculum but also in terms of their worldview,” she said, noting that homeschooling is a commitment both in terms of time and finances. “Not everybody can homeschool. That’s not an option for everybody. We need all of the different options open to people because for some people public school is what they need and for other people that’s not going to work. They need private options, they need charter school options, and for families that can homeschool we need them to be able to choose to do that too.”
Camellia supports ESAs to help parents afford to choose the education system that works best.
“I think that parents need more options and more freedom to be able to determine what is best for their child,” she said. “Parents know their child. I mean you are your child’s best teacher and if they see that your child is not learning for whatever reason in the school that they’re in, you should be able to make a different decision.”