CEAM is continuing to share the voices of students, parents, teachers, and community members across Missouri who are either already benefitting from schools of choice or are fighting to bring more educational options to their community.
We have collected some of their stories in a new publication, “Faces of Choice 2019,” in a new section on our website, and below.
Please see what these strong, determined advocates are saying about the importance of giving families the power to choose the best education possible for their children!
When Thomas Benards added two foster children to his family he did not know that providing them with a quality education would be a major problem, but he soon found out that his local school district was not prepared or willing to provide his foster daughters with the support they needed. “Pretty much they had…
Continue Reading MOScholars program gives students a chance to succeed
Dacia Heaton has always dreamed of having her two foster children attend Christian School District in O’Fallon where she teaches, but until this summer had no idea how she would pay for it. “I was really struggling as a single mom to figure out how I could afford both my children to attend the private…
When Twyla Sanders’ nephew needed a new school she knew exactly where to send him — Christian Outreach Education (OCE) where her two children already attended. But figuring out how to pay for her nephew’s tuition was a much more difficult question. “We just simply wouldn’t have been able to afford it,” she said. “Someone…
Continue Reading Private education through MOScholars program is ‘Life changing’
Last year the Grossman family did not know what to do to help their daughter. She was being bullied at her public school to such a horrible degree that she was not learning and falling horribly behind. Even worse, the bullying had gotten so bad that she had threatened to commit suicide.
“They…Continue Reading MOScholars scholarships are helping to save student lives
– Karesha Warford, Kansas City As a fourth-grade teacher at Kingdom Christian Academy in Fulton, Melissa Leisinger knows what a benefit access to a private school education can be.
Karesha Warford wants to make sure her children are getting the education they deserve, so when her local school district took over half a…– Melissa Leisinger, Fulton As a fourth-grade teacher at Kingdom Christian Academy in Fulton, Melissa Leisinger knows what a benefit access to a private school education can be.
“What really I like about a Christian or a private school is the ability to challenge students above their means,” she said. “It’s a smaller…– Krystal Barnett, St. Louis Krystal Barnett has seen the impact of school choice both in her own education and in the success her son has achieved. Krystal was a transfer student herself, and her son was lucky enough to get a rare scholarship to a private school in her North St. Louis community.
She quickly discovered virtual education…– Ma’kayla Gray, St. Louis Ma’kayla Gray does not have any kids of her own yet, but she knows from her own educational experience that we need to fix a lot of things in Missouri schools and she is actively working to make those changes so that when she does have children they are guaranteed…
– Christy Joyce Moreno, Kansas City Christy Joyce Moreno knows how important having choices is, which is why when her daughters were ready for school she took advantage of the choices she had in Kansas City and sent them to a charter school.
As an immigrant from Mexico City, finding a school that…– Paul Waite, Independence When Paul Waite and his family moved to Missouri they were surprised at how little their district school allowed them to be involved in their children’s education.
“The teachers met us graciously but when we talked about our desire to be involved in our children’s education they kind of…– Shantelai Pettit, Kansas City Shantelai Pettit knows first-hand just how bad some schools in Missouri can be. She moved to the Kansas City area from California when she was eleven and almost immediately discovered how far behind her new classmates were.
“Everything they were learning here I had already learned a couple…– Camellia Plosser, Joplin Camellia Plosser, a product of school choice herself, is a homeschooling parent who enjoys the freedom that homeschooling allows. Camellia’s parents understood the need for parental choice, moving to the Joplin area for the sole purpose of enrolling Camellia in a particular private school.
“It required a lot of…– Kayla Jarvis , St. Louis For the past seven years Kayla Jarvis has experienced school choice through the transfer program, escaping her home district to excel in Pattonville schools.
“Being in school in Normandy was not ideal and I don’t think it is for a lot of people,” Kayla said. “I personally have…– Gloria Lyons, St. Louis When it was time for Gloria Lyons to send her kids to school she knew they deserved to go the best school possible.“Without having an education you really can’t get too much of nothing done in adult life so I wanted to choose the best school that was going to…
– Don Reed, Pleasant Valley Don Reed has explored a lot of different educational options for his daughter over her school career and says that what is being offered in her current district school does not live up to other options she has access to in the past.
His daughter started her school…– Kandace Gill, Lee’s Summit Kandace Gill is a Junior at Summit Christian Academy where she is excelling and getting a head start on her college career. She hopes to graduate with about 30 college credits and loves the benefits of attending a school with small class sizes and caring and attentive staff.
…– Kimberly Townsend, St. Louis City Kimberly Townsend knows a lot about education, having been involved in classrooms in both public and private schools.But her idea of what the perfect school looks like changed when she became a mom herself. “I did not believe that our local public school was going to be the right…
– Lisa Smith, St. Louis City This year Lisa Smith celebrated a major success for her family – the graduation of her daughter from a well-performing school.Lisa lives in the Riverview Gardens School District and has had to fight for years to get a quality education for her two children.When her daughter was entering high…
– Carmen Ward, St. Louis City Carmen Ward’s son Paul is currently a junior at KIPP High School and has been at KIPP since the 5th grade. Paul was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 5. He left private school and entered the St. Louis public school system in the 1st grade. Paul went to…
– Becki Uccello, Springfield. Becki Uccello has been a public school teacher for 23 years. Her daughter Izzi attended the early intervention program at their local public elementary school for three years. They moved into that particular neighborhood because they knew that the elementary school was highly rated as far as attendance rates and standardized…
– Lisa Smith, St. Louis County. Lisa Smith has been fighting for the best education for her two children for many years. Her journey began when her son was abused by other students and locked alone in his Riverview Gardens school as a Kindergartener. When Lisa tried to get involved in her school to make…
– Mikael Spears, Kansas City. Mikael Spears is a teacher at Kansas City International Academy, a charter school in Kansas City.He spent ten years teaching in traditional district schools and learned that the bureaucracy of that system made it really hard to teach, noting that even something as simple as reading a book to a…
– Stephanie Ross, Kansas City. Stephanie Ross has two children who have benefited from access to charter schools in the Kansas City area. Her first daughter is at Mizzou and her second daughter found a new academic life at Hogan Prep Academy. Stephanie said her second daughter was struggling in school and may not have graduated…
– Paul Davis talking about his son Robert, St. Louis City. Robert, a Normandy student with autism, faced relentless bullying for years resulting in a miserable school experience. When his family had the chance to transfer Robert to a safer school in the Francis Howell School District (as a result of a Missouri law that…
– Del-Rio Swink-Lee, St. Louis City. Del-Rio’s daughter was severely bullied at her neighborhood school. When she and her daughter addressed concerns with their school they experienced retaliation including being banned from the school and retaliation against her daughter by school officials.Her daughter’s experience was covered in the local news and Del-Rio has made multiple…
– Cara Lawrence, Lee’s Summit. Cara Lawrence watched her son, who suffers from dysgraphia, failing in school by third grade. Her son was bullied and told he was stupid, but she knew he was an amazing child and just needed to find the right place for him.By eighth grade they moved him to Marian Hope…
– Ryan Tucker, St. Louis City. Ryan Tucker has two children attending a charter school, Gateway Science Academy (GSA), in St. Louis. Both kids previously attended an SLPS Magnet School but had a horrendous experience with his youngest. He tried to be an active parent with SLPS but unfortunately he found “the relationship with administration…
– Kimberlee Gill, Lee’s Summit. Kimberlee Gill has served as a school teacher and administrator for thirty years. She just wrote a dissertation on school-choice policies across the country and after reviewing twenty-nine states and over sixty policies, she soon realized that Missouri was way behind schedule in passing choice legislation. “I learned well-written policy saves…
– Keri Wright, St. Louis City. Keri Wright knows firsthand the benefits of finding a good school that fits. She escaped poor education in St. Louis when she was younger by participating in the desegregation program. Today she is doing everything she can to help her children have similar opportunities.Her family’s complex story highlights the…
– Brandon Self, Lee’s Summit. Brandon Self is a student at Lee’s Summit Christian Academy. He has three siblings, all of whom attend private school based on his family’s beliefs and desire for a high quality education. Brandon has worked with his school to help raise awareness of school choice programs and has visited the…
– Scott Williams, Columbia. Scott Williams is the head of school for Christian Fellowship School in Columbia, where he spent most of his life helping to provide a quality Christian education to the Columbia community.Scott has recently gotten involved in the push to create an Empowerment Scholarship Account program in Missouri. He sees how much…
– Kristen Wright, Kansas City. Kristen Wright is a teacher at Citizens of the World Charter School in Kansas City.She spent most of her career working at a traditional district school in a suburban area, and was looking for a new challenge and opportunity when she moved to a charter school.She knew that it was…
– Cathy Jo Loy, Joplin. As a mother of five, Cathy Jo Loy has had the privilege of making a lot of educational choices for her children. She has been lucky to have the ability to send her children to both public and private schools and to choose to homeschool her children when that has…
– Jesse Barton, Kirksville. Jesse is a teacher in his local public school. Jesse was a fierce advocate for the Course Access bill which was passed in July of 2018. The Course Access bill created the MOCAP program which allows students to enroll in part-time and full-time virtual education paid for by the school district.…
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