CHARTER SCHOOLS -- LAST OF FOUR PARTS: SOUTHEAST OFFICIALS URGED TO SUPPORT CHARTER SCHOOLS

ST. LOUIS -- Charter-school proponents urged Southeast Missouri State University officials Thursday night to sponsor charter schools to help address an educational crisis in St. Louis.

More than a dozen supporters of charter schools turned out for a meeting at the University's Outreach Office in downtown St. Louis."The school system in St. Louis is failing too many kids," said Laura Friedman, director of the Charter Schools Information Center in St. Louis. "Too many St. Louis public schoolchildren graduate without the skills needed to attend college." Kansas City has 15 charter schools and St. Louis none, she pointed out.

Southeast has an opportunity to help improve the education of St. Louis City schoolchildren, she said."We want something better for the children in this city," said Dave Camden, assistant director of the Charter Schools Information Center. "These people are dying to talk to you," he told university officials.

Regina Trotter was among those who spoke at the meeting. Trotter has a 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son attending public schools in St. Louis. Trotter wants here children to grow up to be leaders, but she worries that won't happen in the public schools.

Charter schools, she said, offer an alternative . "I believe parents need a choice," said Trotter.

Kris Bryant of St. Louis has two school-age children. She lives near the Botanical Garden, which has expressed interest in developing a school. But state law requires charter schools to first have an official sponsor.

Southeast can serve in that role, said Trotter.

David Scott, a St. Louis lawyer, is chairman of the board of directors of St. Louis Charter Schools, a group that hopes to open an elementary school next fall. The group's application was denied by Forest Park Community College, but the group is back again. It recently submitted an application to the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "They are our only ray of hope," said Scott.

But after the meeting he said UMSL wished the group wouldn't apply. "They don't want us," he said.

Scott urged Southeast Missouri State to get on the charter-schools bandwagon and take the lead in chartering schools in St. Louis."We all feel charter schools are a way to make the city a better place," Scott told school officials.

Southeast president, Dr. Ken Dobbins, and regents Don Dickerson, John Tlapek and Kim Mothershead were among top university officials who attended the meeting. The meeting had been scheduled to discuss Southeast's strategic plan, but most of those in the audience came to ask for help in starting charter schools.

Dickerson, board president, said he understands the crisis in education in St. Louis. "My heart goes out to the kids, and my heart goes out to the parents," he said. But Dickerson said Southeast has had little time to study the issue.

It has only been since August that an amended state law added Southeast to the list of educational institutions that can sponsor charter schools.

Dickerson said Southeast doesn't want to just lend its name to a charter school. If the university is to sponsor a charter school, it would be an active sponsor, he said.

The state law allowing charter schools in the St. Louis and Kansas City school districts doesn't include any funding for universities in regard to sponsoring them. Dickerson said Southeast would have to consider if it has the resources for such a task. "We won't shrink from this if we think we can handle it," he said.