Editor’s note: This commentary appeared last week on Utah’s kslnewsradio.com
A freshly minted Utah law gives a $6,000 raise to every public schoolteacher, but it also provides parents $8,000 per student per year in state funds to attend a private school or use the money for homeschooling.
As a homeschooled student, Anna Ressie, a co-worker at KSL, joined Dave and Dujanovic to share her experience as a home-schooled student. Recsiek said she was allergic to chalk dust so her mother kept her home. The school sent homework along to her.
“I was able to churn through it really rapidly,” she said. “My mom was like, ‘Oh, please give her more, and the teachers [said], ‘That’s about all we do … she’s doing a good job.”
Recsiek said homeschooling gave her siblings flexibility in the pace of their learning, with individual assistance from Mom.
“For some of my siblings, maybe a slower approach to helping them grow without some of the peer pressures that public schools have,” she said. “If we were struggling, maybe she’d spend some more time with one child or another.”
Her mother encouraged the kids to race each other to finish their homework and to read out loud because she would be in another room folding laundry and could not monitor them as closely.
“Other times we were at the kitchen table — all of us learning about the same subjects and sharing with each other what we learned,” Recsiek said.
She said she would learn about animals, then take a family field trip to a zoo or study art, then visit a museum.
“We would go to the park. When it was a nice day, we could sit at the picnic tables and … enjoy being outside in a different environment. My mother really thought that variety spurred that creative side and really made learning not ever boring,” Recsiek said. “I don’t ever remember being bored.”
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Utah Senate Majority Whip Kirk Cullimore is sponsoring newly introduced legislation designed to give families more educational choice and provide the highest amount of financial assistance to those with the lowest incomes.
Editor’s note: This essay from Britney Mendel, a mother of three living in Herriman, Utah, appeared last week on deseret.com.
My family has three boys. All very different. All with different learning styles.
Our two oldest attended a public charter school for several years. It was a pretty good fit for our oldest, but the school’s methods were destroying our middle son’s love of learning. He felt like a constant failure. It was affecting his happiness and causing us turmoil as a family.
As parents, this was breaking our hearts to watch.
We learned about an incredible model of education called Acton Academy that seemed perfect for our children. We did everything in our power to figure out how to manage paying for tuition. Finances are tight, but our boys are now absolutely thriving there.
In the second year of our older children attending Acton, our youngest was now school age. The tuition was already a very difficult stretch for us, but now we had to pay for three. How would we do this?
Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to work at the school to help cover the cost of tuition. It was a big sacrifice to take on a full-time job, but we determined the education of our sons was well worth this sacrifice.
Currently, there is legislation being considered in Utah that puts children first. House Bill 331, the Hope Scholarship Program, sponsored by Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, would provide scholarships based on income levels to help families customize their child’s education to best fit his or her learning needs.
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