School choice supporters are making their voices heard at Mississippi's state capitol. As MPB's Desare Frazier reports, one family talks about going into debt to help their children.
"These are my faces of Dyslexia right here. Aren't they beautiful,"
Leah Ferretti of Cleveland is talking about her two sons ages 6 and 8. Both of them are Dyslexic. She and her husband are at the state capitol for a rally to support school choice. Ferretti says after her oldest son was diagnosed with the learning disorder, the public school district wasn't able to provide the services he needed.
"Well we ended up pulling him from traditional public school and put him in a private choice and I enrolled myself in a master's degree program to get my masters in Dyslexia therapy so that I could be the provider of his therapy," said Ferretti.
Ferretti says it's worth the student loan debt to help her children. Hundreds of school kids are here for the event. Governor Phil Bryant and the Republican leadership are already on board. Bryant says parents should have options to use tax dollars at any school public or private.
"We don't want to do anything to hurt one school or pick one over another. But for years during the Civil Rights Era government told parents your child can only go to this school we need to change that once again, open up school choice for all these children," said Bryant.
House Democrat Jay Hughes of Oxford is opposed to school choice. He contends its for a select few and leaves already under funded schools struggling.
"Choose where you live. That's how you pick a school system and if not then make your local school better. Be a part of the solution, not leaving and being a part of the problem," said Hughes.
Hughes says a House bill is being considered that would put a Dyslexia therapist in every school district. Empower Mississippi an advocacy group sponsored the event.
