Overwhelmed voucher systems in West Virginia, Arkansas leave thousands of homeschoolers hanging

Editor’s note: This story below focuses on Student First Technologies, an education vendor that Arkansas hired earlier this year to build a digital platform to process transactions for the state’s new school voucher program. Student First replaced ClassWallet, which received a no-bid contract to handle transactions in the voucher program’s first year. But the new vendor has failed to deliver what it promised, according to an Oct. 8 letter from Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva to Student First CEO Mark Duran. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday on Oliva’s letter, which describes numerous missed deadlines and non-functioning systems. Oliva said the state will terminate its contract with Student First effective Dec. 31 and is seeking $563,000 in penalties and damages.

Two years ago, Katie Switzer advocated for a new school choice program that grants homeschooling families in West Virginia up to $4,900 to educate their children.

She was on the winning side when opponents sued to stop the program. But now, she says, the story of the Hope Scholarship has entered a frustrating new chapter.

Glitches in a new online purchasing system mean she can’t spend funds to order headsets for her three children in online classes. Her kindergartner received the wrong laptop and she spent weeks trying to get a refund. Her kids are among thousands whose learning has been disrupted this school year because orders for curriculum and supplies are backed up. Families have been forced to wait or spend their own money and ask the state for reimbursement.

“We fought so hard to get this program,” said Switzer, a mother of five and founder of a Facebook group that has become a forum for dozens of families frustrated with the payment system. “Now we have a number of parents that haven’t received what they ordered.”

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https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/10/09/overwhelmed-voucher-systems-in-west-virginia-arkansas-leave-thousands-of-homeschoolers-hanging