Boundary Crossings: A Matter of Residency - inter-school district student enrollment

School Administrator, Nov, 2000 by Kimberly Reeves

More than $100 million in state and federal funding flowed between the member school districts as students changed schools in the first year, says CEO Bruce Ellerman. He was the chief financial officer of the Parkway school district before VICC was launched in July 1999.

More than 100,000 students participated in the voluntary interdistrict transfers between 1983 and 1999. This fall, approximately 12,000 African-American students volunteered to transfer from St. Louis to county schools, and 1,200 suburban children are enrolled in the city school system.

But the program's success does not eliminate border hopping. There are another eight predominantly minority school districts in St. Louis County that aren't part of the interdistrict transfer program.

"In many cases, we've seen students from the county get a city address so they can get into the program," Ellerman says. "It provides another way for a student to try to get into a school district they don't belong in legally."

He adds: "If you were anywhere else in the country, you'd have to go to the school district where you reside. What we have here is probably one of the largest and oldest school choice programs in the country."

Kimberly Reeves