State Representative Carl Bearden (R-St. Charles) has introduced legislation designed to create new educational opportunities for K-12 students trapped in failing public schools in the public school districts of the City of St. Louis, Kansas City and Wellston. HB 1783 seeks to make scholarships available so students can opt out of their current school and attend a public school in another district or attend a nonpublic school that offers a better academic program.
The scholarships are not funded through state appropriations. Instead, HB 1783 offers a state income tax credit to individuals or businesses that contribute to private foundations that offer the scholarships. Armed with these tax incentives, scholarship organizations like the St. Louis Today and Tomorrow Foundation and the Kansas City Central City Schools Fund can raise more contributions from donors and thereby offer more scholarships. (See MCC Quick Facts #306-44 for a detailed summary of HB 1783).
HB 1783 focuses its assistance on students residing in the City of St. Louis, Kansas City and the school district of Wellston. These are school districts that have failed to deliver quality schooling to their students.
The City of St. Louis school district is only provisionally accredited by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Students in the district performed well below the state average on the 2005 Missouri Assessment Program (MAP). In reading skills, for example, 65.4% of the seventh grade St. Louis students fell into the “Unsatisfactory” category compared to 34.9% of students statewide. In math eighth grade St. Louis students also performed poorly in comparison with students in other districts with 38.9% of them scoring in the “Step I” category, defined by DESE to include those students below state standards and demonstrating “only a minimal understanding of fundamental concepts and little or no ability to apply that knowledge.” In 2005, only 58.6% of the students who started high school graduated. That compares unfavorably with the statewide high school graduation rate of 85.7%.
The Kansas City district is also only provisionally accredited. Some 57.1% of the seventh graders scored at the “Unsatisfactory” level in reading skills on the 2005 MAP compared to 34.9% statewide. In math 32.9% of the eighth graders scored at the “Step I” level compared to 16.9% statewide. The high school graduation rate is better than St. Louis with 75.9% who started high school graduating but still considerably short of the statewide average of 85.7%.
The Wellston district has performed so poorly that it is unaccredited and has been placed under state supervision. Seventh graders in the district perform well below students in other districts in reading skills with 68.5% of them scoring “Unsatisfactory” on the 2005 MAP compared to a statewide average of 34.9%. In math the story is much the same. Some 37.8% of the eighth graders performed at “Step I” compared to only 16.9% statewide. The high school graduation rate is relatively high with 90% of Wellston’s students graduating, but the MAP scores suggest many of the graduates are not prepared to succeed in either college or the workforce.
If ever facts and circumstances called for a new approach, this is it. Yet opponents of HB 1783 prefer to appropriate more money to these three failing public school districts. But just pouring more money into these districts is not the answer. What is needed are new and innovative strategies to improve academic outcomes for students. Rather than focusing solely on improving the public schools by appropriating more money, HB 1783 proposes giving school parents the option to send their child to a better school.
This approach is not only better for the children receiving scholarships but also for the public schools. One 2003 study of a Florida school choice program conducted by Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research found that “low-performing schools are improving in direct proportion to the challenge they face from voucher competition.” (See When Schools Compete: The Effects of Vouchers on Florida Public School Achievement, August 2003, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_02.htm.
HB 1783 offers scholarships only to students with a grade point average of 2.5 or lower on a four point scale. In other words, this bill does not “cream off” the best students but rather seeks to offer scholarships to those doing poorly in their public school. These scholarships would offer low-performing students a second chance to learn and move forward with their education.
Too often lost in the heated battle comparing public versus nonpublic schools are the views of the school parents. Well-informed parents can and do make good decisions for their children. A parent is often the first to know that their child needs a new school setting to succeed. But without scholarship assistance lower income school families cannot make the school choices that more affluent families can. HB 1783 creates more equity so that access to quality education is not limited to the wealthy.
Catholic teaching fully supports the right of parents to direct their child’s schooling. The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2229 states the following:
“As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. …. Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.”
The concrete conditions for exercising parental rights in education do not exist in these failing public school districts. These parents lack the financial ability to send their child to another school if the public school is failing their children. Imagine yourself as one of these parents who is told to “be patient” and wait another four or five years for public school reforms to take hold. No parent would find such a response acceptable. HB 1783 offers new educational opportunities immediately. That is what every school family deserves.
Special note: For additional data about these and other public school districts visit DESE’s page entitled “School Data and Statistics” at www.dese.mo.gov/schooldata. |
