Posted on 08/06/2013 7:55:56 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
When Angela Morgan learned about the opportunity to transfer her son out of Riverview Gardens High School, it was like finding a winning lottery ticket.....
Morgan’s son is among nearly 2,600 students in the St. Louis region who are hoping to benefit from a decades-old but largely untested Missouri statute.
Now, by order of the state’s highest court, that law — which allows students in unaccredited school districts to transfer to better schools — must be followed, no matter the cost or consequence.
The effort has spawned a monumental logistical headache, as districts in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County prepare to educate children from beyond their borders — with some starting classes as soon as Thursday.
Meanwhile, the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts are left with an estimated combined $30 million in tuition and transportation bills, and about 25 percent fewer students.
The issue has exposed racial, socioeconomic and geographical divides that have long existed in the region.
State policies were quickly drafted, seeking to offer a protocol for administering the transfers, which are only vaguely described in state law. Public meetings followed — often with explosive results — as administrators sought to channel the hundreds of transferring children to designated school districts.
Then on Friday, a lottery began finalizing transfers, and by late Saturday nearly all the 2,600 students who made requests had been placed.
In coming days, classes must be assigned. Bus routes must be drawn. School staffing must be revisited. Budgets must be turned upside-down.
At Normandy and Riverview Gardens schools, administrators are left asking how hemorrhaging millions of dollars for tuition and transportation could ever help their districts improve for the roughly 7,500 students staying put.................
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
It’s not about the students, it’s about he dollahs that roll in from the feds. (to admin, not teachers)
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