Since second grade, Mya Petty has taken an hour-long bus ride from Baden, her mostly-black north St. Louis neighborhood, to Chesterfield – where most of her classmates were white.
The recently graduated 18-year-old is one of thousands of students in St. Louis’ long-running school desegregation program, Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation. Last year, administrators voted to bring the decades-long program to a close.
Petty is grateful for the education she received in the Parkway School District and will attend Saint Louis University in in August. However, leaving her neighborhood every day for 11 years to receive a quality education has her questioning the stark inequalities in both the public school system and the entire region.
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