Our family uses our ESA funds to homeschool and to attend Highlands Latin Cottage School, a hybrid school that offers a rigorous classical education with classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and assignments to complete at home the rest of the week. We love having our children in an environment that is both academically challenging and consistent with our values. We tried to make public school work for our family, but our kids were picking up bad behaviors and falling short of our academic standards even though they were at one of the best public schools in the state.

Since withdrawing from public school to homeschool and then starting the hybrid school, our children have thrived. Our oldest daughter is now in the Honors College at Baylor University studying classics, math, and biology. Our second daughter will graduate this year and has also been accepted to the Baylor Honors College, where she will study classics, music theory, and organ performance. The rest of our kids will continue with the hybrid model through graduation.

Our ESA pays for tuition and fees at the hybrid school, music lessons, math tutoring, books, and school supplies. We are thankful for the opportunity to shape our children’s education in a way that fits their needs and our family’s values. As a taxpayer, I appreciate the fact that my kids are being educated much more efficiently at home than they were in the public school system. Their public school spent around $25,000 per student per year with very little to show for it. Each of my kids now gets a fantastic education for $7,500 per year.

When parents have the choice of how to educate their own families, they choose educational pathways that are effective, efficient, and in line with the family’s values. Parents who have a choice of schools are more engaged in their children’s education. They are more involved in the day-to-day process of education and more responsive to their children’s changing needs and their schools’ changing performance. School choice also creates a market that incentivizes public schools to improve, which benefits even the students whose parents do not choose to move to a private school or homeschool.