Trying to Leave Riverview Gardens
An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describes what parents in Riverview Gardens are up against:
Under Missouri law, students in unaccredited school districts such as Riverview Gardens and St. Louis can transfer to a better district in an adjoining county. And the districts they leave have to pay tuition at their new school.
The problem: Other districts don’t have to admit them.
The article includes links to more information about Riverview Gardens, including how much its administration spends on travel around the country. And it describes the valiant efforts of one family, the McCoys, to find a school for its two daughters. Here is part of one of the responses the McCoys received when they tried to get help from elected officials:
"Thank you for caring and being an active participant."
The McCoys are considering moving into another district. That would disrupt their lives and impose significant financial costs, and the benefits would be only a few years of schooling (both of their daughters are now in high school). But when a family has tried everything else, moving looks a lot better than staying in a failing district.
This is why we need a tuition tax credit scholarship program that would give parents in failing districts a choice.
