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 positive changes, the district decided to ban her from any school property, forcing Lisa to seek better alternatives for her children.
Lisa’s children found better schools in the Mehlville school district through the transfer program (a program that helped Normandy and Riverview Gardens students escape those unaccredited districts to better-performing districts in the St. Louis region).
While Lisa’s children have excelled in the Mehlville schools, Lisa knew that it was a short-term fix to the problem and wanted to make sure that other students would also have more options. This dedication has led Lisa to spend years visiting Jefferson City and advocating for a wide-range of school choice measures including the expansion of charter schools and the creation of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.
When the transfer program ended and Lisa was forced to send her children back to Riverview Gardens, she was able to take advantage of the one school choice program Missouri has passed — virtual education.
Today her children are enrolled in the Riverview Gardens School District, but taking classes from the safety of their home through a variety of virtual education providers.