David Lopez, a pastor at Canyon Hills Church, and his wife Lillian Lopez, were upset with public schools and are currently working on getting a statewide ballot which promises any public school student who exits the public school system and goes into either a charter school or is home schooled $14,000 annually to be spent in either private education or put towards college funding. In order for it to even be qualified for the November 2022 statewide ballot they would need 1 million signatures.  

Lopez and her husband were inspired to help with “The Education Freedom Act” that they were both asked to participate in because of the public school education system and what they are teaching their students. Lopez states, “There was just a certain curriculum or certain study that was gonna get ready to get implemented and so it kind of fueled the fire under me to go and check it out and pretty much how it was gonna affect my daughter and their studies and so when I found out what it was it just kind of…for me because I am a Christian and I am a believer. I just don’t feel that certain topics should be discussed within a teacher-student relationship in class. I think there’s just certain topics and certain things that should be life topics I want to say that should be discussed at home with parents.” 

Students here at Ridgeview have mixed emotions hearing about this soon-to-be law, some may argue that this is too much of a boost to those students while others don’t pay much attention to it and go back to their daily lives. 

After being asked how she felt about the situation regarding David and Lillian Lopez’s goal of making this a new state-wide law, classmate Alexis Salinas states she was, “Slightly offended because in a public school I would have to deal with whatever college tuition I have and just because they switched they get money doesn’t really make sense.” 

Some think that if this statewide law were to be passed our students would feel like they wouldn’t have as much of a chance when it comes to academics than a charter or home schooled student. 

Kiya Lopez, 11th grade, states, “I would say yes”. Salinas states, “In some ways yes, they get more specified teachers, like the teachers get to know them better and their education can be more targeted to them since the teachers would get paid to be more connected with the students.” 

Mrs. Lopez talks about her opinion of whether or not the funding should be lowered, higher, or just the right amount. “I think it’s perfect right now as it is, the good thing is the $14,000 is a yearly thing, so every beginning of the year the child will automatically get $14,000 dollars but anything that is left from let’s say the first year going into the next year is gonna automatically roll over.” 

Students are constantly at war when the debate comes to school funding, some say the school needs to fund more of their departments that aren’t sports while others argue that the school is doing the best they can with what they were given from the government. Considering that public and charter schools are similar in many ways when it comes to education, should they be funded almost the same amount? 

Here’s what Salinas had to say, “Yes in the sense that- it depends on the number of students at each school and what each school needs but if for some reason there is a charter school that has the exact same status and number of students then they should be unless it’s one where the parents pay then that’s up to them.”