Girl's fear of school costs district thousands

The Morning Call ^ | 5/18/08 | Andrew C. Martel

[Dawnsblood]

Rebecca Maykish is 17 and dreads school so much that she stopped going regularly.

In fourth grade.

Those days off have come at a price to her school district and the Palmerton taxpayers who support it. Since 2004, the Palmerton Area School Board has authorized payments of more than $45,000 to help Rebecca make up for her missed school days. Rebecca's mother, Barbara, has used the money for at-home tutoring and education software purchases. She has also spent it on modeling classes for Rebecca, subscriptions to teen magazines, and travel to New York and Toronto with a summer camp.

All of the expenses were approved by the district.

Until December, Rebecca's education was paid through a compensatory education fund, which is supported through local property taxes and controlled by the school board. Compensatory education funds are distributed to students whose school districts have failed to give them an appropriate education, as required by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

[taxesareforever]

Lesson learned but probably won’t make any difference. Watch how many line up to take advantage of this situation. They will opt to have their kids put on such a program and, as a judge would say, the precedent has been set.

[Amelia]

I wonder when the father went off to Peru in relation to when this problem started?

[Chode]

ahhh, hereditary...

[Tired of Taxes]

The mother in the story is unemployed...maybe she has it too.

I'd say the mother DOES have a job. Her job is bilking the taxpayers and the local school system out of lots of money. Being a crook is hard work. ;-)

[Tired of Taxes]

even with the awards from the school district, she hasn't managed to even learn the basics, because her mother has spent the money sending her off to self-esteem-boosting exercises that have yielded nothing.

Here's my favorite line in the story:

Barbara Maykish has opted not to homeschool her, saying she worried that she would not be able to help Rebecca with her math and writing problems.

I take that to mean she's not even helping her daughter to learn. She's just sitting back and letting the money roll in.

[Tired of Taxes]

In this case, it sounds more like the parent is a con artist. :-(

[linn37]

Good work if you can’t get it.

[Tired of Taxes]

Yes, that was very unkind. The mother is wrong for bilking the taxpayers out of thousands of dollars. But the young girl is an innocent.

[dbwz]

I take that to mean she's not even helping her daughter to learn. She's just sitting back and letting the money roll in.

Normally I look at stories like this and say, "Hmm, we're probably not getting the whole tale here," because that's usually the case, and I try very hard not to be too judgmental. But this was just one dumb-ass excuse after another for not getting this kid the help she needed.

This young lady's fate has unfortunately been sealed; this experiment is an abject failure and the community has only succeeded in producing yet another candidate for perpetual assistance programs instead of a productive member of society. But I hope this opens some eyes to just where the tax dollars go and what they're being wasted on. Or at the very least, if a program like this has to exist, make the awards contingent on results - would that be so much to ask?