From the Nevada Public Public Policy Research Institute comes this story of a couple who have made it their mission to help low-income children through education, and whose dreams may be shattered by the anti-reform efforts of unions and other groups to block Nevada Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) in court from becoming reality in the classroom.
Starting as educators in Detroit, DaJuane and Tamara Anderson moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and founded The Anderson Academy of Mathematics and Science, a private school “with the sole purpose” of helping at-risk students succeed with their education.”
“So many parents in this community have a one-track mind when it comes to private schools,” DaJuane told the Nevada Policy Research Institute. “They think all private schools are expensive, far away or not designed for struggling minority students. We want to tear down that perception.”
Nevada’s new Education Savings Account (ESA) program made the $500-a-month tuition more feasible for low-income families searching for an alternative to their assigned neighborhood school failing to meet their child’s learning needs.
Sadly, Nevada’s program is in legal limbo right now because it is being challenged by a group of parents and the ACLU in two different lawsuits, threatening the potential for more parents to give their own children the dream of a great education, and not just parents who want better education opportunities for their children, but parents who want to CREATE better education opportunities for kids, like The Andersons.
Today we celebrate families helping other families make it possible to make the best possible choice for their children’s education.
This is one of a series of posts highlighting numerous diverse opportunities from towns to nations for National School Choice Week 2016.