A weekend interview with Shannon Coates, a Florida school voucher recipient

A GREAT interview with a Florida parent whose child receives a voucher:

Now, a lot of people say that this is a Republican idea that is designed to destroy the public school system. But I hear a lot of people from communities that you wouldn't consider to be Republican communities who, like you say, think this is the greatest thing to ever happen to them.

Yeah. I don't see how it's destroying the public school system at all. This is empowering parents. This is giving parents a choice to say, You know what? No. I'm not going to put my kid on that bus and have to worry every single day about their safety. Now I have a choice to say, No, my kid is going to go to the school that is maybe five minutes away from my house. And they're giving me a chance to do that and give her the education that she deserves.

What do you think about the people who criticize the use of state money, tax money, for this purpose? They say, if you want to go to private school, pay for it yourself.

Well, first of all, I mean they have to look at the statistics. Honestly, it is saving the state money. What is it they pay? $7,000 per kid. We're only getting $3,950. And for some parents we're still paying over that. Because some of the schools that we've chosen for our kids are a little more expensive than the $3,950 that we're getting. So we're still struggling. Because we care about our children's education, we're willing to struggle and make sacrifices to pay that extra money to get the best education that we feel is possible for them.

Do you think that the idea to expand the program to more families and perhaps even a larger amount is a good thing?

Oh, it would be an awesome thing. I mean, to be able to know that more kids can benefit from this, more parents can realize it's really up to them. Because who knows the kids better than the parents? Nobody can tell me anything about my daughter that I don't already know. … So I'm the one to know what education is going to be best for her, what school she is going to succeed the best at. And to be able to open that up to so many more parents, so they can realize that, Hey. I know so many parents who don't like the school where their kids are at, but what can they do? There is so much more you can do with them being able to expand this program to other families and to raise the price. That would be phenomenal.

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February 20, 2010

A weekend interview with Shannon Coates, a Florida school voucher recipient

http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2010/02/a-weekend-interview-with-shannon-coates-a-florida-school-voucher-recipient.html

The Florida Legislature's plan to expand the corporate tax credit scholarship program has garnered a lot of criticism lately, from the state's teachers union and even from the St. Petersburg Times. Not all the reaction is negative though. Shannon Coates, a St. Petersburg mom who uses the program for her fifth-grade daughter, Taylor Barnes, is a huge backer of the vouchers and their growth. Coates talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about her rationale.