Other potential political battles, about teacher salaries and the religious background of many of the schools' organizers, don't seem to be in the offing. Teachers unions are traditionally against charter schools, but Daniels says he has heard no complaints so far, even though Academy teachers are working for below-market wages until the schools are fully funded. A call to the St. Louis Teachers Union Local 420 went unreturned.
Matt LeMieux, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Eastern Missouri chapter, had never heard of the Academies before last week. Asked if the ACLU would have any church-state concerns about the schools, he said he the organization hadn't received any complaints about the Academies and he didn't anticipate any.
Meanwhile, the nascent school goes about the business of teaching. And it is serious business, at least in the spartan sixth-grade classroom of A.D. Hilliard at the Perpetual Help site. The former Air Force first lieutenant is a big believer in discipline, training and self-control.
"A lot of times these unfriendly streets don't allow you to be disciplined," he says; "you can get caught up."
So A.D. runs his classroom with a firm but respectful hand. He does not accept mumbled answers to questions or unauthorized visits from a mischievous student who pokes his head in the door at one point. "I think I'm doing something here that perhaps years ago I should have been doing."
He says he was drawn to the Academies in part because of the emphasis on personal responsibility. "When they told us the goals and objectives of this school -- mind boggling," he says. "Elimination of the excuses for somebody failing. If somebody here doesn't come up to the standard, I've failed. I can't go looking for someone else, it's me."
By way of explaining what else brought him here, he points to electrical outlets along two walls in his classroom, open and waiting for computers to be delivered. (They have since arrived, though the schools are still awaiting necessary software.)
"We have our children doing things here that they're not getting, they can't get in the public schools," he says.
When asked to compare their new school with the ones they attended last year, a few students in Hilliard's class of 15 said there were specific things they liked better before: Some had gone to different classes throughout the day, rather than staying in one room, and several students mentioned the wider variety of language courses offered at their previous schools.
Asked if they'd like to go back to the former schools, they all said no. "Our grades go higher, we have teachers that help us more when we need help, we have tutors," said Keyana Wesley. "In our old school we didn't have tutors."
After school, Hilliard is visited by the mothers or grandmothers of several of his students. He spends several minutes with each, discussing their child, the school, philosophy, cooking, history and child psychology, not always in that order, but always starting with the child. At some point in each conversation he asks each woman to come back and help out with the class, share her particular experience and expertise. As one conversation goes long, one mom jokes that Hilliard is probably wondering why she doesn't just leave already. Hilliard wags his head back and forth: "No, no, no, no, no."
"We have heard horror stories from the children and parents about their past schooling," says Brewer, the principal at St. Boniface. "What's really rewarding and refreshing is that the parents of the students who are here are here because they want to learn, and they want a better education."
Daniels rattles off a list of cities and states where schools similar to the Academies are being considered for next year: Atlanta, Oakland, 10 cities in Indiana, Kansas City, Ohio, Washington, D.C. "We've met in probably 15 different cities since July. It has taken roots and it is moving forward," he says. The plan in all of those places, as it is in St. Louis, is to open tuition-free schools and keep them tuition-free. Just this week, Daniels was in front of a city panel screening charter school applicants in Indianapolis.
"What you are starting here today, this model is going to be copied over and over again in the great cities of our nation," says Presiding Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson of Memphis, the leader of the Church of God in Christ, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Perpetual Help. "And we will always have to look back and say that the visionary, bold and daring people here in this area followed a visionary like Bishop Lawrence Wooten in helping to give children across this nation a choice in education."
The Rev. Solomon Williams, one of the ministers in the Academies group and the master of ceremonies at the ribbon-cutting, returns to the microphone.
"At this time we're going to ask our presiding bishop, Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson, to do the honors of cutting the ribbon and ask God's blessing on the St. Louis Academy --"
He's interrupted by sounds from the unfriendly streets just to the southeast of the schoolyard. Pop, pop, pop, pop. Gunfire.
"As you can hear, we need God. We need an education. Amen."
About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon.
Related Stories
The perfect high
An Illinois public school has achieved stunning success by admitting only gifted students and lavishing them with resources. But is this fair?
01/24/01
Can these schools be saved?
Salon's week-long look at the state of America's public schools
05/22/00
Story finder (3 ways to search Salon)
Salon Directory (browse by topic)