Homeschool Children Deserve Dignified Access to Scholarship Funds

Applied in early September and it is still waiting to he switched to read PEP and funded.

Applied September 8, never switched to PEP. Friends applied after us and have a significantly greater income, and were switched smoothly. We are waitlisted.

It's clear that the scholarship funding organizations are not being wise shepherds of the funds they have been entrusted with. SUFS runs the pre-approved "scholar shop" portal on an expensive, unwieldy platform that costs millions per year, and attempts to route all purchases through this "company store" style shopping experience. Items ordered on the scholar shop are often priced 40-500% higher than similar or even identical items available from other vendors. However, if you want to buy a thrifty option instead of paying ridiculous markup, you must submit to a reimbursement process which takes 3+ months and is often declined for unknown reasons (even when a similar or identical item is in the shop). It has become obvious that SUFS is using this program as graft -- I would suspect that they receive kickbacks via the scholar shop, and that the choice of vendor for the Scholar Shop software was likely to receive a sales commission in excess of half a million dollars. Something very fishy is going on, and the taxpayers deserve to know.

It is ethically questionable that a SUFS Board Member is an executive of US Bank which recently became the only avenue to receive reimbursement money (via a fee laden pre-paid debit card). Seems a way to enrich a board member at the cost of recipient convenience.

PEP homeschooling with extended travel due to location. Need gas reimbursements!!

The handbooks are too vague. Not approving things that should be or taking way too long to approve.

The issues with SUFS reimbursements are making it impossible for us to plan and budget. Many of us are relying on being reimbursed, and we are sorely disappointed. SUFS provides no answers when we the parents are asking for them. SUFS has also, in some instances, claimed to have paid reimbursements, and the parents have not received them! When confronted about this, SUFS states that they cannot tell us what is going on and where the funds actually are. It is my belief that there may be a misappropriation of funds.

I just think it is possible to give the funds directly to parents considering the homeschool population. Currently, anyone can homeschool if they can show at the end of the year that they actually worked on homeschooling through a certified assessment and the result is good. Homeschooled children are doing better than public school children. So then, why shouldn't their parents receive the funds to help them in the way they see fit? As for those who will come in to abuse the system, I think it is possible to control that through initial screenings, audits of receipts, and end-of year assessments. That can be done for anyone using this scholarship. Also, instead of the funding organization using time and resources trying to control every move we make with the money, (they have processors looking at every item bought to approve for reimbursement which is wasteful and controlling and taking way too much time) resources and time could be put into helping the new homeschoolers gain access to local homeschooling communities and resources to help them be successful in homeschooling. I just think that the fear that some crazy people would pull their children out of school and let them rot in their homes and not use the money for helping their children and use it for drugs instead should not be creating a system that ties homeschoolers down to a bureaucracy that is cumbersome and time consuming. Thinking about systems, homeschooling parent(s) have their individual unique systems which are working well but could certainly use financial help and some may need access to information and community.

Process not working

Unfortunately, even though the 20,000 cap for PEP students had not yet been reached and others who applied after us were funded, we who applied in August and others who applied even before August have not been funded. And now we have been put on a waiting list after this petition started. The issue is that through so many regulations as to how we can spend this money to help us homeschool, we are ending up with a highly regulated homeschooling system if you want to access any scholarship funds. Too much regulation is not healthy for homeschooling in the long run.

Seems like hardly anyone will get reimbursed. It’s a sad situation.

I’m grateful for this scholarship but very disappointed in SUFS. It took me 80+ hours to get them switched to PEP. So far none of my reimbursements have been approved or funded. Arizona uses a third party group called Class Wallet. Their program is in its second year and doing super well. They are able to approve and fund submissions within a week. Please look into what they are doing so easily. Perhaps they would even be a better group to handle these scholarships.

Homeschool parents provide an amazing service to their children, the community, and their country. Statistics show the overwhelmingly better outcomes for students. We also save the community roads from less travel and reduce the teacher to student ratio in public schools etc. We pay taxes (sales, property, etc.) to fund a system we do not use. Tuition at private schools supports teachers pay. However, homeschool parents only get reimbursed for subjectively approved expenses. The current system for PEP costs ALL tax payers unnecessarily. Simply issuing the small budget to the limited number of parents just like tuition is all that is needed. Homeschool parents are proven to achieve absolutely superior results to the public education system. We are molding future leaders in this world and the type of leaders we need. Help homeschoolers and ALL tax payers by making the change to quarterly distribution in full to homeschool parents using school choice.

Parents should be trusted to make the right choices for their children. The majority of parents want to see their children succeed and will move the world to help them succeed. The use of the bank card is a HUGE step backward from the direct deposit system. It makes things so much harder for the parents to get the reimbursement funds. That part should have been left alone as it was.

SUFS’ Job is to FACILITATE education and allow parent choice by reimbursement. They have lost sight of that goal and need to be replaced.

The amount of time it is taking to fund our children is absolutely absurd!

I applied in the beginning of August, and due to an issue in the system, it didn't show my account was pending residency proof. After q month of waiting I called and they told me the issue. I tried submitting my Driver's License but it wasn't showing on their end. After another month I asked again and they gave me a fax number. Finally in October they accepted and approved my 4 children. I submitted the PEP survey for each, but now because of the issue we have been waitlisted. I was told over the phone I would be seen as submitted in August. But they pushed me back further and now my children will not be funded for PEP. I'm highly disappointed and my children are heart broken. This entire program needs a better handling. How are they allowing people to still apply and get approved when people like me have been waiting months and fighting with the system with barely any help or results. This much money requires better management.

Please approve this as it would help so many homeschooling parents such as myself! This would be so beneficial in getting our students the education they deserve.

I am grateful for this scholarship, but am in the same situation as many parents. My daughter was awarded the scholarship back in August and she has yet to be switched to PEP. It is now November. Customer service is no help and none of the 5 emails I sent have ever been answered. No one can tell my why my son was awarded and funded right away but my daughter hasn't been. So much chaos. And no information on anything.

Kristina Cottrell Thomas so I applied with AAA on May 3rd for PEP, I heard nothing back all summer and no one to contact about it. On Sept 11th our profile updated and went to the next phase. On Oct 11th I was emailed and asked to submit a learning plan. Oct 18th we were notified that we were accepted into PEP and funded. However… there is no purchasing guidlines, no parent hand book, no school shop, nothing is transparent, I have been all over their website and nothing, they website that you get access to once your approved has a “chat” button but no one is over there and they just tell you to email. Once you send off an email there is no one that actually responds in a timely manner. I have been waiting for a response on an email I sent since Oct. 18th. The section where you submit for reimbursement is a joke, they want to invite vendors to get paid directly but not really an option for most places we want to purchase. I bought note cards and tried to submit for reimbursement but I get an error message and it will not allow it to be submitted. So in short, we are blessed to be selected to be apart of PEP, but no real way to use it, no guarantee that it will be fixed, also I have found that their isn’t FB groups for parents like me who are struggling to figure all of this out. All of the groups are SUFS pages. Just leaves a parent feeling very alone and frustrated.