Cleveland

For the past 17 years, Roberta Kitchen has been raising five children abandoned by their mother who was strung out on drugs and alcohol.
Roberta reflects on her struggle to raise and educate her children before and after vouchers became available through the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program. She is raising DeAntye, Tiara, Tatiana, and Toshika. Tiffany is living on her own after graduating from high school.

"These babies came from a rough world. Even while they were living, they were dying. I just couldn’t let them die."

"I wanted them to break out of the system that was their family. I did not want them to grow up on the welfare rolls. I had to show them another way. The key was and is a good education," says Roberta, who is a college graduate and works in a professional position for a Cleveland corporation.

Roberta struggled through a variety of public schools, which did not meet her children’s needs.

"It is very stressful knowing that your children are not learning and that they are not safe because they are corralled in a room with kids who are acting out to get attention."

"I went back and forth through the public schools. I talked to teachers until we were blue in the face. My kids had some good teachers. But so many of them were so frustrated and just threw their hands up."

"I was always at the public school. Whenever the public schools had meetings, I would be there. There was so much broken. I was so disillusioned with the system."

"My daughter couldn’t read. She was in the sixth grade. I had been back and forth with her since the fourth grade. I noticed as I tried to help her with her homework that she couldn’t read. But she was getting Bs and Cs on her report card."

"I asked the school to hold her back because she wasn’t ready to go on to the next grade. They said they couldn’t do it because she wasn’t failing."

Roberta’s experience was much the same as she labored to educate her other children.

"I didn’t want my children’s attitude and spirit to die in school."

So, she turned to private schools. But, ultimately, despite financial help from the schools and her extended family, Roberta could not afford the tuition.

"I would stay up at night looking through the newspapers trying to find a night job to supplement my day job to get money to pay for their schooling."

"People suggested that I lie about my residence so I could enroll my children in a better public school district. And it happens. People do that. But I couldn’t."

"I thought about moving out of Cleveland. But I bought my house before I had children so I was rooted here. Then, I spent all my money on tuition so I had no money left to fix up the house so I could sell it and move. I was stuck."

"At times I felt I had nowhere to turn. Then the voucher program came and gave me a choice. I felt as though I had a chance now to at least fight for them."

With the help of the Cleveland Scholarship Program, Roberta was able to enroll the children in St. John Nottingham Lutheran Elementary School. Toshika continues there with the help of the voucher program. D’Antye and Tiara are in high school and therefore no longer eligible for the program. Tatiana is being home schooled.

"Without the voucher program, I think these children would be on the streets. I know they would be lost. They would have no desire to learn. I look at my girls and they are beautiful and I know they would be caught up with the baby thing and being on welfare. My son would be in the drug world."

"Parents need the right to give their children a chance. We are the ones who know our children. We should be working in partnership with teachers who can actually take our suggestions and make them work."

"When we finally got enrolled in St. John’s, there was a sense of satisfaction. I could go to the school and talk with the principal and teachers and explain the weaknesses and strengths that I saw in my children and they would listen and make adjustments in the way they delivered the curriculum."

"I will not always be there to take care of my children. They need to know how to take care of themselves and compete in this world. I want them to go toe-to-toe with people from other cultures and backgrounds and to succeed."

"The opportunity to give them that came through the voucher program."