“My son Ethan is five, and he currently attends Kindergarten at Mountain Home Christian Academy. I’m a registered nurse, and when I got this position a year ago, we moved to Mountain Home from Northwest Arkansas.
We started looking around to see if we wanted Ethan in a regular school, but because of the agenda of the government, we began thinking about homeschooling. We couldn’t afford a private school. Then we learned about freedom of choice and decided to apply to that [the EFA program]. We are really thankful it passed in Arkansas, because that’s how we were able to put Ethan in school in Kindergarten.
My son loves it. He’s a single child without brothers or sisters at home, so when we were thinking about homeschooling, we were worried about the social aspect. Now that he goes to Kindergarten [at Mountain Home Christian Academy], he’s developing social skills. He’s already been invited to three birthday parties and is making friends, which is a very good thing.
My husband unfortunately is now disabled. So we have a lot of bills, and I still need to pay for my school. I became a nurse three years ago, so I have student loan debt. Then we also have to pay the bills for utilities and things like that. We couldn’t afford private school. If we had applied and not been able to get it [EFA funds], he would have had to be homeschooled, because we were not going to send him to public school. But now that we’re able to have this, it’s a huge blessing for us.
I didn’t know anything about the EFA program at first. An online Conservative news site sent me an email where they told me what was going on in Little Rock with the Arkansas government, and it mentioned school choice. I watched videos and researched things on the internet, then I told my husband there was a program that might let us use our tax dollars to put our kid wherever we want. When we first moved here, we went to Mountain Home Christian to find out how much it would be. When I found out about the EFA program, I went back and asked them about it. They said they were working to get approved and gave us the link to apply.
I hope we can keep using it for the years to come.
My son is able to be in a safe environment where we know what he’s learning. The school is Christian, and that’s a huge plus for us. This also opened up opportunities to meet other families like us and become more involved in the community. And it’s good that we’re able to use our tax dollars how we choose.
To policymakers who made this happen, thank you so much! I’m from Mexico, and although I’ve been here for 26 years, I still ask my husband about different things that I don’t understand. I appreciate all of the people that work hard to understand the laws and all that, and it’s a blessing that they use that to help the community. I know they work many hours, and it’s a very good thing they’re doing for our community.”
Adriana Vaughan
Arkansas mom