podcastED: How one family traded remote learning at Colorado’s closed-down schools for Florida’s education freedom

Renè and Rob Field with their children, sons Keiran, Caden and Tristan, and daughter, Bellàmy.

On this episode, reimaginED senior writer Lisa Buie talks with Renè Field, a mother of four who moved her family from Colorado to Florida in 2020 to find an alternative to pandemic-induced remote learning that was making her two school-aged sons “miserable.”

Field discusses how Colorado’s rules were too restrictive and how she and her husband, Rob, yearned for more freedom, which included in-person learning for Caden, 12, and Keiren, 9, as well as for 6-year-old Tristan, who entered kindergarten this year. After sacrificing for a year to afford tuition at a St. Petersburg Catholic school, Field was surprised to discover that her children qualified for the Family Empowerment Scholarship – Educational Options program.

"The scholarship means everything. I was moved to the point of tears when I found out we got it ... I wanted my children to have a great education in a safe environment in a school with people we can trust and build community and fellowship with."

EPISODE DETAILS:

• The family’s life in Colorado and what drew the Fields to Florida
• How they decided that St. John Vianney Catholic School would be the best fit for their kids
• How they learned about Florida’s school choice scholarships and the change in statute that made them eligible
• The difference the scholarship has made and what their lives might have been like if it had not been available