Student Transfer Solution Needs All Options

St. Louis-area students in unaccredited school districts aren't getting the education they deserve. Does that mean they should be able to attend accredited school districts in St. Louis County, such as ? Should those districts' administrators have a say in how many students they accept?

Five area legislators—including Rep. Don Gosen, R-Chesterfield, who represents Wildwood, and in essence, Rockwood—along with about 50 attendees tried to tackle this issue Thursday in a in Chesterfield.

Gosen said the whole situation is like a puzzle. "All students deserve an education. But we need every piece of this puzzle to get it to turn out. And everyone involved may have to give up some of their pieces," he said after the town hall meeting.

"Laws were changed 20 years ago, based on a little give and take. The Supreme Court for their decision on this matter recently went back to the fact that the Senate back then was willing to provide funding to school districts, but they required accountability. We could change the law, but that doesn't really fix anything for the kids in the unaccredited areas."

Gosen believes a quick fix that only helps school districts also is not the answer. "Our goal as legislators is to find a plan that provides alternatives," he said.

At the center of the discussion is Jane Turner v. . The Missouri Supreme Court's July opinion in the case was that school districts are mandated to accept any student from an unaccredited district and have no say in the matter. 

In the St. Louis area, both the St. Louis Public School (SLPS) and Riverview Gardens School districts are unaccredited. Under current law, students from these districts can choose to attend an accredited district in the same or an adjoining county. 

But county school districts are concerned that . Several bills were proposed during the legislative session to fix the ruling, stopping a rapid influx of students. before the session closed. The case is currently back in circuit court and .

Weeks before the end of the legislative session, Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, spoke with Don Senti, interim superintendent of the and John Cary, superintendent of the Special School District. The three came up with a three-point plan to provide students in SLPS and Riverview Gardens with a good education, but keep St. Louis County schools from a flood of students. The plan didn't make it through the legislature.

Cunningham said they tried to forge a compromise that wouldn’t eliminate children’s right to quality education but would limit the number of transfers.

The plan would have given scholarships to students to attend a nonpublic, nonsectarian school. School districts would be permitted to open charter schools within unaccredited districts, as well as accept students if they have open seats.

"We wanted to try to keep the children as close to home with quality options as we could," Cunningham said.

Cunningham said she had consulted with statisticians to estimate how many students might transfer from SLPS or Riverview Gardens, if given the choice. Based on statistics from other areas with open enrollment, including Washington, D.C. and 20 states, it's estimated that 6,000 students would transfer to county schools. If those students transfer, they'll bring money with them. The Supreme Court maintains that unaccredited districts should pay the tuition for students who choose to attend accredited districts.

It's a number Cunningham said she thinks can be accommodated. The Cooperating School Districts, a nonprofit collective of St. Louis districts, recently polled its 39 districts to find out how many students they could accommodate. Only 22 of the districts responded and estimated that they had almost 3,500 seats.

“I think even if we didn’t put through these other mechanics, I believe that we probably would be able to accommodate,” Cunningham said. But, she'd prefer a fix that kept students close to home.

Several people at the meeting agreed. Stacy Washington, a member of the , said she's concerned that if students are bused out to Ladue, it’ll be harder for them to participate in after-school activities or arrange play dates with other children in the schools.

"Instead of talking about sending them to my district in Ladue, I'd like to see them in their own neighborhood and not spending two hours a day on a bus," Washington said.

Jennifer Clemente, who has two children in the , agreed that alternatives should be offered. Clemente is enrolled in a program through Southeast Missouri State University that includes many virtual learning opportunities. "In today’s day and age, we are virtual," she said. "Those kids shouldn’t be disrupted from their present environment, nor should our kids."

But Sonny Buttar, the president of the school board, said she wasn't sure virtual schooling would work.

"I have no problem with virtual schools. That works for some kids. But the kids that are failing out of the school system?" she said. Buttar also said that as a parent, she's worried that her school district may be flooded with students, given its good reputation and proximity to the city. She said she was concerned that the district may not receive the promised tuition.

"If we have 12,000 students come to Clayton, who is going to pay for it? Clayton? A town of 10,000 people?" she said.

Rep. Scott Diekhaus, R-Washington, said part of the challenge legislators faced in trying to pass a Turner fix was that this problem is unique to the St. Louis area. "Right now the people in St. Louis city and county care about this. In mid-Missouri, they don't understand it, they haven't heard about it," he said.

Gosen said all elements should be considered, such as providing scholarships to parochial schools willing to absorb students from unaccredited areas. Laws that separate church and state prevent that option. He said charter schools could be another part of the solution, if government-related funding could be transferred to them, as well as some students being bused to West St. Louis County to relieve part of the immediate pressures.

"I also don't think we should overlook options involving home schooling," he said.

Additionally, Gosen said he is a proponent of virtual classes, but not virtual schools. He said he's seen successful virtual classes being conducted in certain Missouri counties through which individual schools saved up to $90,000 annually for one grade level.

"I don't want to do anything that would destroy the Clayton School District, but we do need to have enough other alternatives so St. Louis students can choose what options will best work for them," he said.

Gosen said some money would be freed up if students from unaccredited districts transfer to locations such as Rockwood. While St. Louis City district representatives use the range of $16,000 to $17,000 needed per year to educate each student, he said Rockwood invests closer to $10,000 to educate each student each year. "St. Louis City officials would get to keep that extra $6,000 or $7,000 to apply toward students who may be more challenging to educate," he said.

Gosen maintains that any combination of solutions to this matter need to protect what already is working in all related school districts and school communities.