There was a SC Senate subcommittee action meeting on Thursday of this week to review an amended version of a voucher bill. As of this writing, we don’t know the outcome of that meeting. It was important for me to write our senators verbalizing my support of the voucher system within the context of providing quality education for all of South Carolina’s children. And it is important to you, as a MSA family, to know how hard MSA tries to keep the cost of tuition down. The following is the letter sent:

Dear Senator ___________,

I believe in offering the best of traditional and alternative forms of education to the children of South Carolina. I believe in great public schools, magnet schools, charter schools, STEM schools, parochial schools, and independent nonprofit schools. I believe there is a place for Emilio Reggio programs, Montessori programs, Home School programs, Waldorf education programs. Each does well in serving the children of SC. And I believe that choice for South Carolina's families is a great gift to them.

Nothing would be better than to provide all these programs under the auspices of "free" education to all of SC's children. But the state system has its hands full dealing with the vast majority of families with public school as their choice.

Yes ... I am not a public school teacher; I am a Montessori School of Anderson teacher. But what I do know is that our nonprofit school, over its 45 years of existence, has depended on many families paying full tuition, other families working off tuition through various work programs, and when unable to work off the missing amount of tuition, the school has been committed to offering assistance to those remaining families. These monies are raised through the efforts of the whole school body through a variety of fundraising events.

Over 50% of our school families are already on some sort of tuition discount or assistance. We would like to offer much, much more to our Anderson community, but it is impossible with budgetary demands as they are. Our teachers are paid half of what their contemporaries are paid within the state system with fewer benefits.

With all this in mind, I am an advocate of a voucher program that enables SC families a little more flexibility in choosing which educational approach best suits their family values and their children’s specific needs or gifts. Our program, over its many years, has always strived to acknowledge that we are not "better than traditional public schools but different than" in its approach.” And that “different than” is what can be celebrated in all its many SC educational forms.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen Holt

Montessori School of Anderson Teacher

About me:

Hi! My name is Brenna Leahey, and I am the Nap and Primary Extended Day instructor. I was born and raised here in Anderson and have been here all my life. My mom and dad enrolled me in Primary here at MSA when I was three years old. I stayed here through 1st grade and then went into the public school system; I attribute all of my academic success to the foundation I built here! I have two sisters, and my older sister is Mrs. Lockhart who deals with admissions and guidance here at MSA. I am so glad to be working in such a wonderful environment and cannot wait to see what the future holds!

My education/experience:

• Worked in a preschool setting part-time throughout college
• Graduated from Clemson University in 2018 with a BS in Health Science
• Returned to the MSA family as a full time employee in Primary in Fall of 2018
• Currently pursuing my Masters of Teaching in Elementary Education at Anderson University and set to graduate December of 2021!

My favorite things:

• Movie: White House Down
• Color: Red
• Food: ANYTHING Italian
• Snack: Mini M&Ms
• Sports Team: Clemson - all day every day
• Hobby: Dancing! I’ve been in classes since I was 3 years old
• Vacation spot: Folly Beach
• Favorite thing about teaching at MSA: The kids! Every day they say something that just cracks me up and brightens my day. I love them!!!