A Moncton parent has concerns over the provincial government’s program that will help pay for laptops for high school students.
Ben Vuillemot has five children, and two of them are in high school.
He says coming up with the funds to pay for two laptops is going to be challenging, “It’s kind of late in the game to be budgeting that kind of money for laptops for kids. I have two kids in high school who would need laptops. It is a lot of money with less than a month before school is starting.”
He says his employment situation has also changed in the last couple of months during COVID-19, which is making it even more difficult.
“We understand that they have to make changes and doing schooling differently, but they are doing it at our cost. I mean, we are paying for it anyway through our taxes. Things have happened this year, that no one could have predicted, and we’re just in a situation where we can’t come up with the money in this short notice of time.”
The subsidy program was introduced this week. Low and middle income families will be provided with up to $600 per high school student to purchase a laptop, depending on their eligibility.
Education Minister Dominic Cardy says it will be a quick reimbursement, if parents have to put charges on their credit cards.
He adds the current income scale for the program goes from $0 up to $85,000, but if you are above that, it will be on a case by case.
Vuillemot says as it stands right now, because of his financial situation last year, he doesn’t qualify for the help, “Even though this year, my financial situation is vastly different due to unemployment.”
Cardy suggests, if anyone has concerns about purchasing a laptop of electronic device for their child, they should be reaching out, “Give me a call, at 506-238-5550, or send me an email at Dominic. Cardy@gnb.ca. They can use any of those tools to reach out and we’ll get you squared away. We know it is not too much time, but it is around five weeks, and I’m sure that parents are starting to think about back to school right now. It will probably still be a stressful time of getting everyone hooked up, and getting the software installed. We are doing this due to COVID-19, and we can’t have happen what did in the spring, when we had to shut the schools without a plan.”
He adds this subsidy will also apply to those who purchased laptops or other electronics earlier this year, when school was forced to cancel due to COVID 19, “We heard that a lot of parents purchased laptops or tablets for their kids in the springtime, so they could work with the online offerings we had at that time. As long as you have the receipt for that, you can also apply for the subsidy.”
For parents who are wondering why this program only applied to high school students, Cardy says, “It’s because those are the ones who need to be able to work every single day. So, we can have a seamless system whether or not the students were in classrooms or at home.”
There is no way to police whether or not a family who applies for the subsidy, has a laptop or other device currently for their high school student, “In some cases, families have said, they have a computer at home, but if the schools are closed, the parents may have to use it. So I’ve got no problem if this ends up meaning we have more computers in the home, then they’re not competing with siblings or parents to distract them from schoolwork,” Cardy says.
