Scholarship bill is a lifeline for kids

Originally published at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Pennsylvania has become a battleground for educational freedom and choice. Parents from diverse perspectives are showing up at school board meetings, filing lawsuits, forming political action committees and running for their school boards. Many have reached a boiling point with systemic inequities and curriculums that often feel more like activism than literacy.

Parts of our public school system have been dysfunctional for a long time, but the covid-19 shutdowns exposed weaknesses we already knew and revealed some even worse, intensifying the urgency to give parents more choices and control in education.

Statewide, students had wildly different pandemic experiences. While some schools stayed open, others went virtual. We had kindergartners struggling with masks in school, grade school kids trying to learn using cellphones because there was no computer at home and even some high schoolers dropping out of school entirely to help support their families.

Read more at the Pittsburg Tribune-Review