When you stop to think about it, parents are free to make choices regarding what’s best for their kids in nearly every walk of life. It starts at birth when parents decide what their kids will eat and what kind of toys they’ll play with. As their kids get older, parents decide what books they’ll read to them and what the rules of the house will be. But up until this year, parents didn’t have much of a choice when it came to which school their kids attended.
I, for one, am glad to say that the voucher bill has changed that scenario and given parents the opportunity they deserve. And as the principal at Cardinal Ritter, I’m hearing from a lot of parents who are telling me that they love having a choice to decide which school can best meet their kids individual learning needs.
We have more than 50 students on vouchers this year and each family has a different story. One mother told me that her daughter had stopped going to her public school because she didn’t feel safe anymore. Our environment has given her the safety she desires and a new opportunity to thrive. Another parent told me that their student was struggling academically and that they felt like giving up because the class sizes were too big and there wasn’t enough personal attention at their public school. That student now gets the attention that’s required.
It’s important to recognize that public schools work well for the vast majority of families. But, that wasn’t the case with one of our new parents who tells me that her son’s public school was not providing the academic counseling required to get him to college. Today, he’s getting the tutoring he needs and he now believes that college is in his future.
I come from a family of public school educators and I taught public school for a few years myself. Some of the good teachers I know are still serving in public schools, but I also know that our school provides one of the best learning environments that students can find anywhere. I’m glad that Hoosier families now have a choice and that education options are no longer limited to only those that can afford it.
But, what gives me the most joy is talking to students who feel at home in their new environment. One student told me that he came here because there wasn’t enough discipline at his school and he felt that his teachers had to spend more time managing troubled kids than helping those that wanted to learn. He tells me that the transition here is going well but that he’s still working on one thing. He said, “I’m just not used to everyone being so nice.”
