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Opinion: All students deserve access to public school options

Every family has been faced with unprecedented challenges over the last year. For many, one of the most difficult has been deciding how to safely educate their children.

At the beginning of the pandemic, our son transitioned into our brick-and-mortar school district’s emergency version of online education. Although it was best efforts, the transition to an online learning platform was proven not to be a simple task. For the fourth quarter of the 2019–2020 school year, it was apparent that the school district was just in a reactionary mode, flying by the seat of its pants, and online teaching requires a completely different skillset.

As the health concerns continued through the summer, we were faced with making a decision: Hope that the school district’s offered online version had improved or find an alternative option.

Having witnessed that it took a special kind of educator to captivate and engage students virtually, we began to research our available options.

The Missouri Virtual Academy (MOVA) offered through MOCAP really stood out to our family as the school offered a robust curriculum, including a range of advanced courses in math and English. MOVA offered my child more one-on-one interaction with his teachers and fellow students, and its education platform has always been online based — thus the best practices were already in place.

So far, our son’s online learning experience has been nothing short of successful. He has been challenged, enjoys his classes, and gets to interact with teachers and kids.

While our family plans to re-enroll in our school district once the pandemic is over, I am incredibly grateful for the educational experience my child has been afforded thanks to MOVA.

Our experience isn’t unique. Many families across the state transitioned to full-time online schools and are having a great experience. I also know many other families tried to enroll their children in full-time online public schools and found difficulty in the enrollment process.

All families should have the opportunity to choose the best educational option for their child as allowed under the MOCAP law. I urge lawmakers in Jefferson City to make the changes necessary to reform MOCAP and make it stronger, make the process more accessible, and to make the programs work better for who they were intended for — families and their students.