Missouri was the 27^th state to pass charter school legislation in 1998. In other states, charter school legislation was passed to expand opportunities for teacher creativity and increase student achievement. Other states passed it to offer an alternative to pending voucher legislation.

However, Missouri’s reasons were clear: charter schools were another option for public education, as three decades of court-ordered school desegregation in St. Louis and Kansas City were coming to an end.

However, the original 1998 legislation failed to include accountability and transparency measures for both sponsors and charter schools. The purpose of House Bill 473 is quite simple: to increase accountability and transparency, while simultaneously expanding access to make sure that all of Missouri’s children have a chance at a quality education and a chance to succeed.

According to the September 2010 data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, there are 20 unaccredited or provisionally accredited school districts in the state. Jennings and Normandy would be unaccredited, and Hazelwood, Ferguson-Florissant and University City would be provisionally accredited. The remaining districts in question are in other, non-urban counties.

This isn’t just an urban issue, it’s a statewide issue. It’s our responsibility to give parents an option if their local school districts are failing. If we do nothing, or if we only focus on Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri will be outcompeted, nationally and globally.

This bill seeks to both improve the quality of charter schools by increasing accountability and requiring that failing charter schools are closed if they are not meeting established benchmarks in academic and operational performance.

St. Louis city charter schools performed worse overall in math proficiency in 2010 than St. Louis Public Schools. However, there are some outstanding charter schools that performed well above the district and state average. Schools such as City Garden Montessori Charter and Confluence Preparatory Academy performed at or above the state standard in math proficiency for 2010. The state standard is more than double the current SLPS standard in math proficiency.

Furthermore, out of the 14 St. Louis charter schools, a majority performed at higher levels in math proficiency than the SLPS average. This proves that charter schools have the potential to be well run and accountable and to effectively tailor their curriculum to the students they serve.

House Bill 473 seeks to make quality charter schools the standard, while making it easier to close underperforming schools through more advanced accountability measures. This bill would force these underperforming schools to either reach or exceed the standards set forth by the bill or close their doors, ensuring that only charter schools that stand to benefit children academically will remain open.

Regardless of the statistics, students and parents have been voting with their feet. Charter school enrollment in St. Louis has grown approximately 75 percent since 2007, showing that, when given a choice, students and parents believe that charter schools give them an opportunity for a quality education. House Bill 473 and expanding access to charter schools comes down to one issue: giving children the opportunity to succeed by empowering families to make choices concerning education.  

Let me also make it clear that I applaud the efforts of Superintendent Kelvin Adams and the SLPS Special Administrative Board. Their progress is clearly tied to operational stability in the district. However, students in unaccredited and provisionally accredited school districts do not have the luxury of waiting until the system is fixed. Do not let the desire for a perfect bill be the enemy of good legislation. Let’s expand charter schools and give our students a fair chance at succeeding in the future.

Jones represents District 63 in the Missouri House of Representatives, which covers parts of the city of St. Louis.