Getting the word out about existing choices for parents and children in St. Louis

“Choice” is too often the last word parents associate with their child’s education. The truth is that there are many school options in St. Louis. Because a child’s education is a vitally important subject, competition and information to local parents is crucial.

St. Louis public schools enrolled almost 33,000 students during the 2006-07 school year. As the largest district in the state, SLPS has 55 elementary, 16 middle, 16 high and 5 special schools. Students are assigned based on simply on address.

Magnet schools are another option though the SLPS district. These schools have no geographic boundaries and offer unique curriculum. For acceptance to a magnet school, families must apply and are then chosen by a lottery system. Early childhood and elementary have 12 schools specializing in math-science-technology, international studies, visual/performing arts, gifted education or general academics. The 12 middle and high schools offer similar special programs plus a military academy.

Charter schools are independent public school alternatives created by teachers, parents or citizens with a common education mission. Charter schools enrolled 10, 342 in their 22 Missouri schools. High-risk applicants in currently failing public schools are given priority.

Inter-district voluntary transfer programs have offered thousands of African-American students from failing public schools in the city the opportunity to attend public schools in the county. The Voluntary Inter-district Choice Corporation (VICC) possesses the related application and information. The county school available depends on the specific location of the city student.

K-12 Virtual schools are a SLPS effort that began in the 2007-08 school year. Courses are offered using web-based methods as a form of distance learning. Interested families must submit an application—which are available online.

Technical and Career Academies are open to city students. Imagine Academy of Careers and Clyde Miller Career Academy are both examples in the St. Louis area. They offer a more job and need related education to high school students.

Catholic and Lutheran Private Schools provide another option. These religiously affiliated schools are located throughout the city, however they require tuition payments. The Today and Tomorrow Education Foundation offers scholarships for city families in need and are currently accepting applications.

Independent Private Schools also offer a non-public tuition education, however theses schools do not have religious ties. Interested parents should apply at the specific school.

Homeschool is yet another education option. Parents may choose to teach their children at home based on state laws. Homeschool families can often receive support from different religious and secular organizations.

http://stlcin.missouri.org/education/K12.cfm

Today and Tomorrow Foundation Success, Growth

The $12 million raised by TTEF was 6 times last year’s funds! This is extremely encouraging growth. The $2,000 private scholarships that will be given to 600 students will undoubtedly have a significant positive impact on these struggling families and the city, while preventing the closing of successful private schools.

Currently, there are 18 Catholic, six Lutheran, six Christian and four private schools to choose from. Parents should have this constitutional right of choice—in the face of continually failing public schools—despite their economic situation.

Thanks to the donations from the Sinquefield Family Foundation, the Lay Family Foundation, Eugene and Evie Williams and Emerson Technology Company, local children will receive the education they deserve and concerned parents can finally shake the sense of helplessness they have come to know all to well.

However, most importantly, TTEF growth will begin to force a vital change to the current failing status-quo of the public school system.

*Information from: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/BF496B7C2F792273862574410012B616?OpenDocument

Superintendent Meets with School Choice Advocate

The superintendent of Springfield, Norm Ridder recently met with Rex Sinquefield, a school choice advocate. Many people know Rex as someone who cares deeply about the children in the state of Missouri and their education. Although some people may have negative feelings about him, they must just be uninformed. He is working so hard to help fix the troubled public school system in our state. A retired business man, is using his money and his time to do something constructive for the children. While he may face opposition, mainly coming from the teachers unions, his ideas may be reaching some. Norm Ridder, who has previously worked in districts with some form of choice, realizes Sinquefield has a business intelligence that has some merit. Ridder says "What's to gain? A lot. What's to lose? Nothing."

According to KSMU Online "Ridder says he had a fruitful conversation with Sinquefield about how to bring more talented people into teaching. Ridder says it’s possible he’ll meet with Sinquefield again."

Finally, people in the public education sector are opening themselves up to Sinquefield's ideas. Although Ridder may not be completely sold on the school choice idea, he at least acknowledges something has got to give. While many think we should simply keep on going with our schools the way they are, many others, myself included, know big changes need to be made if we want to see the improvement we all hopefully want. Of course, it may be hard for people all over Missouri to understand the devastation some of the schools face when their schools are great. But what about the horrible schools, what about the schools that are deemed unaccredited? I know I would never want my children to attend those schools.

I thank Ridder for being open and I thank Sinquefield for trying to create changes here.

Video: Today and Tomorrow Foundation scholarships offered in St. Louis

Choice is fair for teachers and students

Last night I spoke with a woman whose friend (we’ll call her Bonnie) was in her final year of teaching special education.

Before Bonnie retired, another special ed. teacher moved into the area and the school hired her to take Bonnie’s position, knowing she’d be leaving the next year. They moved Bonnie to a classroom with severely disabled children, some with behavioral disorders, most of her class was non-verbal and many needed physical assistance throughout the day.

Bonnie was qualified to teach them. She knew how to work on communication skills and understanding and behavior, but she felt completely unable to handle the physical side, which was very important. She was an older woman and physically could not restrain children or lift those children who needed help getting to the restroom.

This wasn't at all fair to her as a teacher or to the students who needed that assistance but weren't receiving it--or as much as they needed--through no fault of the teacher.

House and Senate Democrats in Missouri are saying that instead of giving students with disabilities a choice to find a school that truly helps them, we should just pay for more teacher training, but Bonnie's experience is exactly why that approach would not work. She is not going to be able to receive training in her last year of teaching, not to mention her obstacle is not teaching--it's the lack of an assistant like many private facilities have who is able to care for students physically.

Students who are not getting that kind of essential service should have the right to transfer immediately out of a situation that is not working, rather than wait, losing precious developmental years, while the state trains their teacher.

Teachers should have the right to work in an environment they're comfortable with, and relieving schools from the burden of having to educate every student whether they have the capacity to or not it the way to do it.

Graduate Crisis

The Turner Report says that public schools cannot turn around low graduation rates on their own, citing problems at Joplin public schools. By now, with statistics that over one million kids are dropping out, we have an obvious problem that can’t be ignored and isn’t going away. If we’ve ever turned away from this issue, or tucked it under a rug, that luxury is gone. It’s far too big to ignore and our schools need critical attention, and as the Turner Report notes, we have to do everything in our power to keep them in school.

Oh, except extending more choice to students. That would be going too far. The blog brings up the staggering problem, then immediately takes swings at the idea of school choice that many believe will offer some relief for the students who are in danger of failing.

It is not “ridiculous” to believe that offering more choices in education will help improve graduation, because it has already happened in other states that have passed legislation providing more educational options. And while there are many factors that keep children from succeeding, and they take a community effort, helping children get paired with the right education environment is one part of that effort.

I think that having a seamless support network that catches children before they slip through the cracks—or drop out—is a huge part of the solution. As a community, however, we have an obligation to make choices more plentiful for the next generation; help them be more likely to succeed. The current Missouri legislation aimed at giving more choices to special needs children is neither taxpayer funded nor detrimental to public schools, but it can give students with special needs the connection to a service that will help them learn.

Ignoring the potential benefit that school choice programs can have to combat the staggering dropout rate is painfully short-sighted. Deciding to forgo even the discussion that school-choice proponents are generating flies in the face of “doing everything we can to keep students in school.” I don’t think we can afford to not give it our all when so many children’s futures are at stake.

Instilling Character

I’ve been giggling lately at how often we use computer metaphors. I try to imagine someone from another century trying to understand what “reboot the system” might mean. That’s exactly what some Georgians want for their state’s character program.

Georgia has been implementing a character-building curriculum called Character First! Since 2000, but there is a public outcry that the program is not going the distance. Critics say the push for character stops at the doors of some schools, and that the programs aren’t being followed through with in the classrooms.

It seems from the quotes in the Augusta chronicle that character building gets an initial, emotional response, but the pressure to sustain that momentum is quick to die away. It’s easy to see how the pressure of test scores and evaluated programs can usurp something vague and unable to be tested like “character”.

Tony Warenzak from Richmond County is offering his own model that he hopes to bring into schools in a much more meaningful, long-lasting way.

"For us, character is more than just a word on a marquee. It's a way of life. It's a paradigm that everybody buys into, with one voice."

There is more than just an epidemic of bullying in schools at stake when children learn values like respect, fairness, honesty and compassion. These are the seeds of the inheritors of our democracy, and to sustain it (let alone make it greater) requires a view that looks beyond one’s individual needs and wants and sees a greater good, a society that benefits from honesty, a neighbor who benefits from compassion, or a business that thrives because of an employer’s fairness.

Making a program, however, that instills good character traits is not as simple as planting a seed or passing a test. I particularly like Mr. Warenzak’s “inside out” approach of letting classrooms and teachers and schools develop their own words and ways of conveying them—a way to own the process as children will eventually be responsible to their communities and actions therein.

In the end, character building programs do not really build character—only people can do that. And there are times to be meek or defer to an adult, and there are times when we should stand up for ourselves or someone else. It can, though, help kids recognize when they have a choice between something right or wrong. That is until they go to college and take a class on moral relativism.