‘UNBELIEVABLY STRESSFUL’: Liz Robbins, a mother of seven, wants to use Nevada’s ESA law to send her two youngest children to a private school, where their health problems can be less of a hindrance to their education.
Liz Robbins has two sick children who would benefit greatly from education savings accounts.
The Nevada woman’s 13-year-old son Dallin and 10-year-old daughter Rebecca both suffer from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a group of disorders that affect the connective tissues that support the skin, bones, blood vessels and other organs and tissues.
“Our public school system doesn’t have a lot to offer students with health problems who are still college-bound,” Robbins told Watchdog.org.
But the state’s ESA program is facing a legal challenge blocking the release of ESA funding to parents. The Institute for Justice, which represents a group of parents, on Friday urged the Nevada Supreme Court to let the program go forward.
“The ESA program puts parents, not the state, front and center in pairing their children’s needs with their education,” said IJ managing attorney Tim Keller, who made the closing argument before the high court. “It’s constitutional, and it’s common sense.”
Opponents argue that the law, enacted in 2015, unconstitutionally spends public money on private schools.
For Robbins, the esoteric legal arguments are secondary to the simple fact that ESAs might be the difference between her children succeeding and failing.
She said one of her older children — she’s the mother of seven — was expelled from the public school system because of excessive absences as a result of health complications.
“I can’t describe how unbelievably stressful it is to be navigating extraordinary health problems and not have the support of your local school,” said Robbins. “It was a nightmare.”
It’s a nightmare Robbins is trying to avoid reliving. Using educations savings accounts, Robbins is hoping to send Dallin and Rebecca back to the Joy Academy in Las Vegas, a small private school they attended last year with help from scholarship money. Robbins said the children benefited from its smaller class sizes, flexibility and increased support when they are unable to attend school, and opening the school day with prayer has helped them through some trying times.
“It really strengthened them and helped them know they weren’t alone even though they were going through this difficult health situation,” said Robbins. “To be honest, I didn’t know it would make that much of a difference, but it did. There were kids from different religious backgrounds. It’s not like we would all go to the same church. There was a lot of strength in the diversity of religions that was presented.”
Robbins said she doesn’t understand the opposition the ESA program is facing.
“If there is a small, religious school that provides an outstanding personalized education that puts your child’s needs at the forefront, why can’t a regular public school offer that when they receive more funding,” asked Robbins. “To me, the taxpayer, this is more bang for the buck.”
Robbins is holding out hope that her family will receive ESA funding before the new school year starts in late August. Without it, she will not be able to send her children back to Joy Academy.
“I’ll probably have to start home schooling on my own and purchase the resources I can afford,” she said.