If Missouri shuts down this KC charter school, its students’ education must come first | Opinion

After nearly two years of disruption from the coronavirus pandemic, many schools in Missouri, Kansas and across the country found their students had lost significant ground academically. But not at the Genesis School. Students at that Kansas City public charter scored better on state assessments in 2021 than a year before COVID-19 shut everything down.

So why has the Missouri Charter Public School Commission decided to close the school at the end of this school year? And what will happen to the hundreds of students enrolled there?

Kevin Foster, executive director of Genesis — one of the oldest charters in the city, with a history of serving some of Kansas City’s most at-risk students — says the commission has told him that, effective June 30, it is revoking the school’s charter because of a history of “underperformance in academic outcomes.”

The commission said the slight improvement in 2021 was not enough to merit keeping the school open. Because of too many years of low performance history, the commission officials don’t believe Genesis “has the ability to bring the school up to the standards expected.”

We won’t debate that decision. But what matters most here is what happens next for the 200 students attending the K-8 Genesis, located on the city’s East Side in the Thornberry Unit of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City.

These students must be afforded an opportunity to receive quality education that consistently meets the standards set by the state, the kind of education that all students deserve.

Foster agrees that the school has performed poorly in the past, and that’s why the state agreed in 2020 to renew the school’s five-year charter but put it on academic probation.

A year later, the commission gained supervisory status over Genesis after the University of Missouri lost its authority to sponsor three of its charter schools, including Genesis.

The commission then reviewed the school’s academic history and “determined that this school does not meet standards,” said Robbyn Wahby, the commission’s executive director. The decision was based not on the improvements shown in 2021 but on Genesis’ years of inconsistent performance, said Wahby. The school will have a chance to appeal to the commission at a hearing not yet set. The school has been “under distress for quite some time,” she said.

She recognized, as we do, that the people who have operated Genesis over the years wanted to provide a great education for children. “But not everyone who steps into this arena is successful,” Wahby said. “We don’t want to close a school. There is no joy in this. But we are doing what needs to be done.”

Revoking a school’s charter mid-contract is unusual. Doing it so soon after the pandemic is concerning. While Genesis, unlike most other public schools in the Kansas City area, did remain open for in-person classes for all of 2021, COVID-19 still took a toll on student learning and families.

Closing a school sets kids up for a lot of transition and change at a time when education experts have said it may take some students as much as three years to get back on track academically after the pandemic.

Genesis Executive Director Foster says 90% of the school’s students live within 3 miles. And many came to Genesis, which has a 16-1 student-teacher ratio, because they had not done well at other schools, he said. Most come from households that depend on government assistance. Genesis offers free breakfast, lunch, and before and after school care.

If the commission shuts down Genesis, then it also has a responsibility to work with Kansas City Public Schools and other charters to help parents find alternative schools nearby where children can get quality education in a safe, nurturing environment that offers all the services — including before and after school care — that those families were getting at Genesis. Because all students deserve access to a good education. It’s why we have public schools.

Anything less would put the students in a worse situation, not a better one. Improving conditions and the quality of education for these students and their families should be the commission’s only reason for closing their current school.