CEAM partnered with National School Choice Week

We believe all of America’s children deserve the best education in the world.  That’s why we added our support to the first-ever nationwide call for effective education options for every child: National School Choice Week, January 23 – 29, 2011.

During the week, thousands of school choice organizations, teachers, students and leaders gathered across the country to build public support for school choice initiatives, bringing to light the need for more children in our country to benefit from the promise of educational freedom.

Did you know?

• Missouri is the only state with geographical restrictions on charter schools (charters schools are only allowed in Kansas City and St. Louis)
• 2 public school districts in Missouri have lost their accreditation: St. Louis Public Schools and Riverview Gardens.
• 10 school districts are only provisionally accredited (including the Kansas City public school district)

From National School Choice Week:

• Missouri does not have any private school choice programs.
• Only 75.3% of Missouri’s children graduate from high school. (America’s Promise Alliance)

“The additional Medicaid costs attributable to dropouts (compared to the cost if they had graduated high school) is $234 million per year, of which $90 million comes from Missouri general funds.” “A Missouri dropout is twice as likely to be incarcerated as a high school graduate.” (2006, Foundation For Educational Choice)

From “Waiting for Superman”, Social Action Campaign:

• Among 30 developed countries, the U.S. is ranked 25^th in math and 21^st in science.
• In 2010, 64% of schools in Missouri did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
• Only 25% of Missouri students who take the ACTs are prepared for college (based on ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks in English, Math, Reading and Science).
• In Missouri schools with the highest levels of poverty, teachers who are not considered highly qualified teach 16.5% of core classes, according to Missouri’s 2010 Public Schools Accountability report.  By comparison, in the schools with the lowest levels of poverty, only 6.5% of core classes are taught by teachers not considered highly qualified.

In Missouri, state legislators and education reform organizations introduced four pieces of legislation. The areas of focus are:

• Expanding charter schools
• Ending social promotion
• Creating a scholarship tax credit program for special needs children
• Reforming teacher tenure

This legislative session promises to be very active in the area of expanding high quality choices in education. As always, CEAM will work to keep you informed.