Dupage Policy Journal

A father of three school-age children believes it is deeply unfair for Glen Ellyn School District 41 to cancel school in favor of remote learning due to COVID-19 while promoting monitored in-person classes for $1,000 a month at venues other than school buildings.

When Tom Renkes received correspondence announcing the option, which would take place at township-owned facilities, he contacted school officials immediately. 

“Nobody with the interests of all children at heart could think that setting up a de facto private school for rich kids in the middle of a pandemic was a good idea,” Renkes, who has a 6th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader, wrote in an email. “Nobody could think that a school district that gives out discretionary pay increases in the middle of a pandemic could be so incredibly tone-deaf as to charge nearly $1,000 a month for services neighboring districts are providing in schools, with teachers, as usual.”

Corey A. DeAngelis | File photo

The option for elementary-school students is described in the communication that Renkes received as a limited-participation Remote Learning Day Camp located at the Boathouse and the YMCA.

“I am upset because it highlights one iniquity after another,” Renkes told the DuPage Policy Journal. “Remote learning is already hard on the underprivileged because they have less access to a technology that makes it work well. They're more likely to live in multi-generational houses where there’s more risk of COVID passing. They're more likely to be in households with two working parents where you don't have someone on hand all day to monitor how the kids are doing. They're more likely to be the victims of abuse in these situations because they are placed in ad hoc daycare scenarios.”

Corey A. DeAngelis, director of school choice at the Reason Foundation and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, told the DuPage Policy Journal that in-person learning programs that allegedly charge public school parents to educate their children are on the rise.

“It’s unconstitutional because every state has a duty under their constitution to provide free public education, and they can't say they're providing it for free if they're charging people out of pocket,” DeAngelis said. “Property taxes are supposed to cover this expense, and just imagine if private schools did this. Most people would call it extortion.”

When Supt. Melissa Kaczkowski and Churchill Elementary School Principal Scott Klespitz were asked to comment, Erika Krehbiel, chief communications officer with Glen Ellyn School District 41, said that the Remote Learning Day Camp is not a Glen Ellyn School District 41 program.  

“It is a program provided by the YMCA and the park district to families in the community,” she said.

The YMCA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), however, has reportedly started to address the issue of alleged at-cost educational options state-by-state.

“The ACLJ sent legal letters to Gilbert Public Schools in Arizona already over the same issue and they're looking for clients in other states as well,” said DeAngelis. “They've received thousands of legal inquiries from people in at least 45 to 46 different states seeking their money back in the form of a voucher.”

In his email, Renkes admonished board members, Supt. Kaczkowski and Principal Klespitz.

“Public education is supposed to be the great leveler in this country, but at every opportunity, this board has enacted policies that favor the wealthy and leave the less fortunate hung out to dry,” he wrote. “And now you are giving a special, privileged group of kids access to a program that is financially beyond the reach of many parents in this district. This is a farce. Like most parents, I am just tired. Undo this mistake.”