What They Are Saying: Parents Pack Room at Appropriations Hearing to Testify Against Unfair Virtual Public Charter School Cuts

ARLINGTON, Va., March 31, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kansas parents and students traveled long distances to the state capitol today to personally defend their virtual charter schools against proposed cuts that will force them to close. The parents testified before the Kansas House Appropriations Committee hearing and personally submitted testimony defending their schools against the Kansas State Legislative budget proposal will hurt thousands of students across the state.

Below are excerpts from verbal and written testimony delivered by parents today:

"By the last count at least 6,000 students are enrolled in Kansas' public virtual schools. But of course I am here because you are now considering cutting funding for public virtual schools in half. By now you must know that this will extinguish the only faint flicker of parental choice throughout the state." (Tillie Elvrum, national board member for PublicSchoolOptions.org)

"Public virtual school was perfect for Sophie. If it had not been available, Sophie would have another year of languishing in classes paced too slowly for her, and she would have required an additional year of state funding." (Alyson Von Feldt, Lawrence, KS. Her daughter is a junior at the InSight School of Kansas and has been accepted to Brigham Young University)

"My children deserve to continue to flourish in a school that is meeting all of their individual needs.  Virtual schools already receive about $7,000 less than traditional brick and mortar schools per student. To cut an additional 50% from their budget would close InSight School and all virtual schools in Kansas. We will be left with no other school option" (Michelle Otte is a mother of four boys in Wichita, KS)

"We especially find the Advanced Placement classes to be a great asset. Such courses that were not available in our home town school have helped our kids become critical thinkers, and they have and are allowing them to enter college with high GPA's, high quality education, advance credits, and money saved." (Les Miller is the father of seven from Fredonia, KS).

"If InSight School of Kansas would close due to these budget cuts we do not know what we would do. Madelyn has shown so much improvement in this past year that we do not want to send her back to a brick and mortar public school. At the same time, we do not have the resources send her to a private school at a cost of several thousand dollars a year." (Kim Bryan is a mother of two from Louisburg, KS. Her daughter was the victim of bullying)

"I do not believe the traditional public school will be able to accommodate Ardrian …I believe that the accommodations that would be required will be significantly more costly to the state, and less effective for Ardrian, than the provisions that are made for her at InSight Schools of Kansas, which is much better designed to support her needs.   Because of the environment at InSight Schools of Kansas, the special education support she receives is mostly built in." (Sylvia Tidwell Scheuring is a mother of three in Lawrence, KS. Her youngest daughter suffers from a non-24-hour circadian rhythm)

PublicSchoolOptions.org is an alliance of parents that supports and defends parents' rights to access the best public school options for their children.

SOURCE PublicSchoolOptions.org