Another ridiculous statement from a female member of” The View” comes out yet again. Sunny Hostin stepped up this time, demonstrating how uneasy she is with college option.
Hostin made two patently false claims about school card programs during a heated exchange with co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin. The first is that the consumers of these certificates come from “overwhelmingly” affluent families. Next, certificates divert money away from public schools.
Neither is real. I live in North Carolina, where about 50, 000 people are on a list for tickets. The grants in question are for$ 3, 000 and$ 7, 000 per pupil per month.
Trust me, really rich families had never attempt to apply for this kind of wealth, let alone deal with the paperwork involved. But$ 3, 000 to$ 7, 000 is a godsend for a middle-class family whose child is struggling in a public school or who want their child’s education to reflect their family’s religious commitments.
Certificates are intended to give students who fall short of the one-size-fits-all public school system a chance to get a good education. Their level of vulnerability does not depend on their families ‘ money, but rather on how well people schools serve them, as the case may be.
Take my children, for instance. Both are on the dementia range. Due to a persistent battle against cancer, my daughter has philosophical limitations. Saying that the public school system is ineffective to them is like saying Cher enjoys Botox.
We applied for these tickets because any income we earn goes right back out the door for medical expenses, physical therapy, follow-up images, etc. We are hardly the only relatives in this position.
Families of special-needs babies are used to hearing “no”. We’ve been told there ca n’t be anything done for our children, which is a common remark. We even refuse to abide by this tale. Rather, we do whatever we can to support our children. To Hostin, this might make us greedy jerks, but perhaps that is because she does n’t know us. We are really quite enthusiastic, charming jerks.
This leads to Hostin’s following mistake. She claims that the funds used to purchase these tickets is used to divert money away from the public school system. That’s misleading. Public school systems across the nation request and obtain larger sums of money year after year. The United States is then paying more than ever, in inflation-adjusted words, for K-12 teaching.
However, the money for these techniques comes from citizens. Middle-class communities pay fees. Some of us have experienced program failure. It is common sense to request a portion of this cash back to make sure our kids receive a quality education.
Amanda Parry is the mother of two wonderful special-needs kids and a former news writer. Her work has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Scary Mommy, and True Apparent Elections.
