Andrea Weck with her daughter Lexie, 6.

Dental
Southern Arizona Endodontics
Dental Assistant General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION

How can the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and the People for the American Way oppose a program designed to help children with disabilities get the very best education available? As the mother of a child with multiple disabilities, I have yet to fathom an answer.

The ACLU and PFAW are asking the Arizona courts to take away a scholarship program that is helping my 6-year-old daughter, Lexie, attend the Chrysalis Academy, a private school in Tempe where she is flourishing.

These groups say that our state Constitution does not allow state funds to pay for educating children with disabilities in private schools. If they really believe that, why are they only going after 15 of the 27 families attending Chrysalis using state funds?

For decades, the Department of Education has used vouchers, funded with state tax dollars, to pay for children with disabilities to go to private school. These "old" vouchers are available when a school district decides that the best place for a child is a private school. But a new program started in 2006, the taxpayer-funded Pupils with Disabilities Scholarship Tuition Program, lets parents like me decide when private school is the best choice for my child.

Only the new program is being challenged, so only 15 of the 27 publicly supported children at Chrysalis may lose their state-funded scholarships.

The ACLU and PFAW seem more opposed to parental choice than public funds supporting education in private schools.

With the help of the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit, public interest law firm based in Virginia, I am fighting back in court to protect my right to choose the school that is best suited to meet my precious little Lexie's needs.

Lexie and Charlie are my twin girls. Their 5-year-old sister, Samantha, rounds out our loving household in Scottsdale. Lexie has special needs given her cerebral palsy, autism and mental retardation. She has received professional services and therapies since she was an infant.

After two years at a traditional school, Lexie had made very little improvement. So I found Chrysalis and its unique play-based curriculum and was thrilled when they accepted her into the program. Lexie started at Chrysalis in August 2006, but I didn't know how I would ever pay the tuition.

When the state created a scholarship program to help pay the tuition for children such as Lexie to attend schools like Chrysalis, it was a godsend.

Lexie is a radically changed little girl. She can point to the letters to the alphabet, she is learning sign language and, most wonderful of all, she now engages her sisters, especially when they are playing the types of things that Lexie does at Chrysalis.

But the ACLU and PFAW don't seem to like that I chose the private school, and they want to take away the help my family so desperately needs. Thankfully, they lost their argument in trial court, but today they will try to persuade an Arizona appeals court in Tucson to take away my daughter's scholarship.

These groups didn't object when education bureaucrats made the same decision for other children. Maybe someone reading my story can explain the difference to me.