Shelle Curley's
Shelle Curley's 17-year-old son, D.J. Strong on the left.
Posted on 09/15/2009 1:32:40 PM PDT by Steelfish
Mom Panhandles For Son's Tuition
Moms will do anything for their children--even stand at freeway on-ramps to beg for money to pay for their children's school tuition. That's what one mother in Bellevue, Wash., is doing.
Shelle Curley's 17-year-old son, D.J. Strong, has the chance to do his senior year of high school at the prestigious Idyllwild Arts School in California. Strong is a talented dancer and received a $45,000 scholarship, but his recently laid-off, single mom was still thousands of dollars short. Tuition costs $53,000 a year.
[Pic in URL]D.J. Strong on the left.
Strong told Momlogic.com that she tried applying for jobs, selling candy, and washing cars as well as applying for loans. But she wasn't making money fast enough and since she's applying for high school tuition, not college, she wasn't able to secure a loan. Curley's daughter jokingly suggested that her mom beg, but Curley took the suggestion seriously. What else could she do?
Curley has been making about $45 an hour on some ramps but she says it gets competitive and homeless people often try to kick her off the most profitable spots.
So far she has raised the first deposit of $1,433, as well as $511 for gas and lodging so she can drive down to the school for parent's weekend. The next payment is due November 1, but she hopes to find a job before then.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I never understood why you have to go to college to learn how to dance?
I recently joked with Hubby that if he doesn’t find a job soon, I was going to put him on a streetcorner panhandling for the mortgage payment, LOL!
Uhhh....when you are white you do.
Dude, pay your own way and don’t depend on mom. If fact, you should be paying your own way and HELPING out mom. That what millions of other people do.
Another Michael Jackson wannabee?
I’d pitch in for a real school.
But dance?
If that’s what she wants to do, more power to her.
$53000 for one student for one year?
WTF?
That means 10 students produce revenue over a half-million dollars for one year.
Let’s guess at $100,000 for a studio for a year, another $100,000 for a teacher, and there’s still a third of a million left.
From above ... WTF?
LOL.
Well played, Sir.
Look at how far the ballerina Rahm Emanuel has gone!
Photos show that the mother is white - photo of dancer is of a young AA man.
He surely is sacrificing a lot to learn to dance. No wonder he doesn’t have time to find a job. $53,000 does seem like a lot of money for dancing lessons. Do you suppose he is taking any other courses - i.e. make-up, wardrobe, music?
Interesting.
Open a dancing school and charge $53,000 a year.
It worked for Forrest Gump's mother.
If she really thinks %53,000 a year is worth it, she can prove it on her back.
People are stupid.
Stupid is as stupid does.
This costs more than one year at Harvard Grad School!
Maybe his daddy can help?
Anybody seen him?
Art school for dancing?
That sounds like TAXABLE income to me.
Good for you.
I joined the Army to help pay my tuition and student loans.
Of course, I don’t suppose a fine young dancer like this boy would be inclined to join up, or that The Army would be inclined to keep him.
“...That sounds like TAXABLE income to me”\.”
Easy solution, change your last name to Rangel.
not relevant - no place for it here
ROFLMAO!!!
The $53K is for HIGH SCHOOL dancing lessons. This sounds like a scam to me. He got a $45K grant, now all they have to do is come up with the other $8K plus expenses.
$8K a year for private high school sounds about right— $53K? Ludicrous. I’ll bet a lot of their students get the same financial deal.
She should try to go to some Venture Capitalist, have the son audition. Then they could loan the money in return for a certain percentage of his future earnings from dancing.
i’d love to see this kids facebook page. probably full of unicorns and lollipops.
yeah..how about that? Does this school have a ROTC unit?
I am sure the Army, Navy/Marine Corps or Air Force have a slot for a Dance major.
in the good old days, if a son wanted to be a dancer, he’d be kicked out of the house.
Never mind....it is a High School...
OK. This is getting just a little out of hand.
$53,000 per year for HIGH SCHOOL tuition? This woman is nuts. But if sonny is such a great dancer, maybe he can put on street performances while mommy panhandles down the block. Real classy family.
My response to comments #2 and #5. Poking fun at white folks needing lessons to dance. I thought it was harmless -on a par with ‘White Men Can’t Jump” not racist.
Shelle Curley's
Shelle Curley's 17-year-old son, D.J. Strong on the left.
Yeah, what’s the ROI on something like high school dance lessons at a fancy high school?
Even if you sneer at the son’s major, this is a devastating indictment of public education.
At $45/hour, maybe I should be standing on the freeway holding a sign. ;-)
In all seriousness, I’d rather the woman stand outside and panhandle than ask the taxpayers to foot the bill. This is the way it should work. Those who want to donate are free to donate. The rest of us can reply, “$53,000/year for a high school...? That’s insane.”
It may be a nice school. I see it calls itself an “academy” and its academic program “college prep”. It has honors classes including calculus:
http://www.idyllwildarts.org/academy/academy.html
Still... too pricey.
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