After reading Commissioner Edelblut’s Opinion Editorial on the value of New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Accounts, I felt compelled to share my family’s story.
Back in 2002, we were living in Windham, and I was homeschooling our three children, ages 6, 4 and 3. My husband and I had planned to continue homeschooling as long as it fit our family’s needs and as long as we were able to manage it financially and practically. There were no Education Freedom Accounts or tax credits for those of us privately educating our kids back then.
In August of that year, our two sons, Ben and Sam, were diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare and progressive genetic disease. The Boston Children’s Hospital neurologist told us, “Take them home and love them because they won’t survive their teens.” We learned that they would be in wheelchairs by age 10 and that in their teens, they would need full assistance with all activities of daily living. We would be showering, toileting, dressing, and feeding our boys for the rest of their lives.
This devastating diagnosis did not dissuade us from wanting to homeschool. I went down to the Windham SAU and although it was not legally mandated to provide special education services to a homeschooler, the Superintendent allowed me to bring Ben and Sam to the elementary school once a week for a half hour of PT and OT.
My husband often traveled, and as I was carrying my two sons up the stairs to bed every night, it became obvious we needed a handicap-accessible home. We tried to stay in Windham but eventually built a wheelchair-accessible home right next door in Pelham.
Before we bought land to build, I went back to Superintendent. At that time Pelham and Windham shared an SAU. I asked if we built in Pelham, would the district continue to give Ben and Sam PT and OT services once a week. She said, “of course”. She was mistaken and I was naïve. As soon as we moved into our new home, the Pelham School Board denied our request. I might add, the physical and occupational therapists both had time in their schedules, and it would not have cost the taxpayers an extra penny.
The Pelham School Board told us if we wanted PT or OT services to enroll them in the public school. It was all or nothing. The town either had to foot the entire Special Education bill for over a decade including IEP’s, one-on-one instructional aids, wheelchair buses and drivers, a Hoyer lift and other equipment, assistive technology, tutoring, PT, OT, speech, extended school year services and maybe even an out-of-district placement or two. I’m no expert but I’m guessing that would have cost the taxpayers of Pelham a few million dollars.
If you want to know why the Special Education costs in NH are through the roof, perhaps start with the “all or nothing” position some districts probably take.
What we did instead was enroll all 3 of our children in a private Christian School which we paid for out of pocket with no cost to our town. The students, teachers and administrators at our small private school helped Ben and Sam over the years and they all became better humans as a result. Ben was Salutatorian of his class in 2014 and went on to graduate Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Social Work from Gordon College in 2018. Sam never went on to college, but he is an accomplished writer and speaker, most recently giving the keynote speech for World Duchenne Awareness day on September 7th at the Quincy Marriott.
My experience is that smaller private schools and homeschoolers can often do a better job at a much lower cost. I agree with Commissioner Edelblut that many who campaigned against Education Freedom Accounts simply prefer the government school model and don’t want competition. But New Hampshire is the Live Free or Die state. No one should be forced into an educational model that isn’t right for their kids or their families.
Thanks to Lori Safford for the Op-Ed. As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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