SCHOOL CHOICE DEBATE COMES TO MISSOURI

Proponents call it an issue of parents' rights -- and a promise of better education for all (especially those in urban areas). Opponents say it blurs the separation of church and state -- and could lead to the bankruptcy of public schools across Missouri. Both sides recognize that neither the issue nor the debate are going away soon -- even though on Tuesday the Missouri Senate Education Committee voted 6-7 to reject a proposed state amendment allowing school choice by parents.

In fact, the narrow defeat for such a revolutionary idea on its first go-around is a signal of how potent the issue is.

The amendment's author, Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau (and associate publisher of this newspaper), pledged to redouble his efforts, calling school choice not only an education issue "but the most important advance in civil rights since the 1960s." Even Sen. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, who voted against the measure, agreed with Kinder's contention that there are serious problems in public schools that need to be addressed.

This general consensus about the plight of public schools, particularly in urban areas, is at the crux of support behind school choice initiatives across the United States. Too many public schools have become more associated with violence, sex and political correctness than with reading, writing and arithmetic -- at the same time that funding has jumped dramatically upwards.

Just over a week ago, a St. Louis public school erupted in disarray when several youth gang members brought loaded guns into a classroom threatening to kill, and a teacher could only yell to her students, "Run for your lives!" While the school was fortunate no one was injured, it was not reassuring that on a scale from 1-10 in terms of seriousness one district official called it a "three." We hesitate to imagine what a "six" would be like.

Such incidents are one reason that a quarter of all students in St. Louis attend Catholic schools, which promise safer and stricter academic atmospheres. Other reasons, expressed by some locally as well, is that American public schools have forgotten their mission -- and there is little that parents, facing unyielding bureaucracy, can do absent a mass movement.

This breakdown is not necessarily individual public school's fault. Many public schools do an exemplary job in teaching young people. And certainly, there is no lack of desire among public school teachers to provide the best learning environment possible. Unfortunately, not all schools are good, however. And not all parents, faced with sending their children to a school they have little confidence in, have the ability to move them somewhere else. Thus sprouted the school choice movement.

In testimony before the Missouri Senate last week, Dr. Louis Peters, representing 193 Catholic schools in the St. Louis Arch Diocese, explained why so many view choice as one of the most important education and social issues today: "Almost 75 percent of the families enrolled in our elementary schools in North St. Louis are not Catholics. Our system's commitment to the poor is part of our history and tradition. A further part of our tradition is to reach out to families who share the same philosophy and mission of education that we offer. Unfortunately, the right of parents to exercise such choice is directly related to their financial ability to exercise such a right. As we know here in Missouri, our constitution and laws are so designed as to deny parents any educational services or benefits unless they attend a public school. No other state is as restricted as Missouri....

"(This amendment) is not an issue of public schools vs. private schools -- but an issue of parents' rights. Who can best decide what type of educational philosophy, educational environment, or educational program is best for their children?"

On Tuesday, Dr. Peter's arguments did not win the day. Nor, however, did they go unheeded. We encourage the Senate to return to this issue soon.