My name is Jay and my daughter, Tiella, is 8-years-old. She’s been attending Mountain View Christian School since Kindergarten and is in 3rd grade now.
She attended public Pre-K and had a wonderful teacher, but there were a lot of struggles with learning because a lot of the other kids that she attended with were starting to learn English and it felt like she was always ahead and got bored easily. I had voiced my concerns with the school, but they didn’t do anything, so we switched her to private school.
She loves school now. She is finally being challenged and is learning. She wakes up in the morning ready to go. She’s been on the principal’s honor roll, and she’s making friends.
School Choice is so important because as parents we should be able to choose where our kids go to school. These kids are the future. They’re going to be future teachers, doctors, nurses, and if the foundation at an early age isn’t right then we don’t have a bright future ahead of us.
This year was challenging because, unfortunately, Tiella lost one of her scholarships. She normally receives the AAA Scholarship Foundation Scholarship and the Nevada Educational Choice Scholarship, but this year she only received AAA. We weren’t even sure if she would be able to return to her private school. It’s a struggle because the scholarships are so limited, so we have to pray and hope that the following year the scholarships will be available so the kids will be able to continue attending their school of choice.
To the decision and policy makers, I ask that you put yourselves in our position. A lot of times the public schools that we are zoned for are not always the greatest. If we had opportunities where we could put our kids in great schools, they will go that much further in their lives. Being able to have funding and being able to support the kids who already have the scholarships will allow these children to continue attending a school that they love and really prepare them for the future.
