When so many students in traditional schools have no other recourse, I am grateful that my cyber charter school has provided continuity of education for my son. To disrupt his education would have been a setback.
I can’t imagine losing the ability to make this choice for our family, and if the cuts to charter school funding that Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed had been implemented last year, many more students would be disadvantaged right now as traditional schools struggle to adapt to providing an online education.
My son, now a first-grader at PA Cyber, had 30 kids in his public school kindergarten class. He tested far above his peers, but the school wouldn’t test him for gifted education for three more years. PA Cyber did gifted testing in first grade.
An online education allows students flexibility to learn from anywhere, which was crucial when my husband, who is a wounded veteran, had to go to California for a month for a program. Our family went together without any disruption to our son’s education.
During this is a tragic and challenging time, just as much of Pennsylvania’s workforce has had the opportunity to work from home because of modern technology, I am grateful that my son has the ability to maintain some normalcy through those same tools and continue his education. All parents should have the right to choose that opportunity for their children.
I hope my elected officials and Wolf realize that and there are no more proposed cuts to cyber charter schools.
Heather Elliott
Brentwood