Meet the Kronebusch Family

By: Kronebusch Family (Dave & Susan and children: Rebecca age 9 & Elizabeth age 7) From: Southport, NC

First, we want to make it clear that we don't hate public school as we are both products of public school. Our daughters, Rebecca and Elizabeth, both attend a local private school (Southport Christian School). We felt it was extremely important to give our children a solid educational foundation to build upon, so we saved to send them to Southport Christian. And though it has been a struggle for us – now adjusting to the financial impact of a third child – we are determined to make the necessary sacrifices for our children to receive this valuable education.

Like most North Carolina families, we are not wealthy. We are a typical working middle class family. We would love to send our daughters to the local public school and we came very close to having to make that decision a few years ago. However, we were fortunate to receive a little help by way of a scholarship provided by an anonymous donor to Southport Christian School who was aware of our financial situation.

For us, the frequent overtime we have to work, the constant rotating of work shifts and the extra costs for after school care are what we have decided we must invest into Rebecca's and Elizabeth's education. All of these sacrifices made over the years, we believe, pale in comparison to the positive effect it will have on our children's future.

Again, we do not hate public schools but we do hate the underperformance and underachievement of our local public schools. Because of the low performance of our public schools, we believe we had no other choice but to make these necessary sacrifices for our children's future.

Why do we make the extra sacrifices to send our children to private school? For starters, we want our children to be challenged academically. In some respects, we think the public schools have been forced to lower standards just to raise averages. In addition, we wanted a school where our children would be free to express their patriotism for this nation and free to express their acknowledgment of God – traits that we as parents instill at home and traits that are reinforced at their school.

In the long run, we believe Rebecca and Elizabeth will look back one day and appreciate the many sacrifices we have made for them. Our only wish, however, is that North Carolina would look for ways to lighten the financial burden for parents like us who work extra hard to pay extra to ensure a better future for their children.