ST. LOUIS 鈥 In fifth grade, Habakkuk Cooper鈥檚 reading and math skills were that of a first-grader. So her mother transferred her from a 50度灰视频 district school to KIPP: Inspire Academy, a charter middle school in the Fox Park neighborhood. Habakkuk progressed three grades in the first semester, she said, and finished eighth grade proficient or advanced in every subject.
Habakkuk is now a freshman at one of the 50度灰视频 district鈥檚 most selective schools, the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, where students must have a 3.5 grade-point average and good test scores to enroll.
Habakkuk shared her story Thursday with more than 100 educators and advocates at downtown鈥檚 Central Library at an event promoting school choice.
It鈥檚 the kind of story that school choice advocates champion 鈥 a child leaves a failing public school for a higher-performing one and soars, despite a low-income background.
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But it ignores the unintended consequences of school choice, skeptics say. Charter schools, they argue, can deplete resources from district schools and make it harder to improve a troubled school system. Some can be worse than the district schools from which their students come. And crossing district boundaries for better schools, as more than 1,000 children from the Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts are doing this year, can create a situation where those who leave benefit at the expense of those who stay.
鈥淓very child deserves a quality education. Who could argue with that?鈥 said Don Senti, executive director of EducationPlus, a support organization for area school districts. But, he added, 鈥淭he 80 percent who choose not to leave aren鈥檛 getting a quality eduction.鈥
The effort to expand school choice has become a perennial debate in the Missouri Legislature, where lawmakers have taken up issues like charter school expansion and tax subsidized private education as they also work to alter the school transfer law.
Choice advocates say children should not be forced to attend schools that don鈥檛 work for them. They want to expand charter schools beyond urban areas. And they continue to seek some sort of taxpayer-supported subsidy for private school tuition.
Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a bill last summer that would have allowed children in unaccredited districts to transfer to nonreligious private schools at the expense of a failing district. Wednesday, the issue of choice was revisited as the Senate began debating changes to the school transfer law.
鈥淪ome parents don鈥檛 mind traveling two hours to take their kid to school,鈥 said Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, who advocated for the private school provision last year. 鈥淚t should be up to the parents where their kids go.鈥
Ray Cummings, vice president of political advocacy for the 50度灰视频 chapter of American Federation of Teachers, said parents sometimes put their children in schools that perform worse than the ones from which they came.
鈥淲hen it comes to young people I don鈥檛 think it should be a crapshoot,鈥 he said.
Peter Franzen, the development director for the Children鈥檚 Education Alliance of Missouri, said it鈥檚 more of a risk to trap children in failing schools. He鈥檚 hoping for additional choice reform this year. 鈥淵ou have to take one step after another,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e do want to move toward choice and show people that it works.鈥
Showing that choice works was the point of Thursday鈥檚 event at the Central Library. Other students told their stories.
Shemar Lee, a high school junior, said public education had failed him until he found his stride at Confluence Prep Academy, a charter high school in downtown 50度灰视频.
David Ledbetter, a senior at the same school, said he has seen friends disconnect with education after not getting support they need from schools. 鈥淚t can really make or break a child鈥檚 future,鈥 he said. 鈥淪tudents need an environment where they can learn and be successful.鈥
Nick Hardwick, a junior at Vianney High School, agreed. 鈥淚f you are comfortable, you are most likely to learn.鈥
Princess Robinson, a freshman at Ritenour High School, told the crowd that she had transferred from Normandy schools to Ritenour two years ago. Her mother cried after the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the transfer law and gave Normandy students the green light to leave.
鈥淕etting an education there was very hard,鈥 Princess said. 鈥淎nd I actually wanted to learn.鈥 At Ritenour, 鈥淭he teachers are different. The students鈥 attitudes are better. They鈥檙e more eager to learn.鈥 Princess has the choice to return to Normandy, but says she鈥檚 not going to.
Alex Stuckey of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.