In an effort to stem the school-to-prison pipeline and to keep kids in school, the Choice Bus was rolled out to help students understand their options in life and how their decisions can affect their futures.
The Choice Bus is an initiative of the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, a national nonprofit created in 2007 to help educators, community leaders, and other interested groups reduce the dropout rate and increase the graduation rate. Dr. Shelley Stewart named the foundation in honor of his mother, whose murder he witnessed at the hands of his father at the age of five. The tragic incident put him at risk of poverty, homelessness, and dropping out of school. Had it not been for a passionate teacher, Stewart’s life may have gone in a different direction. Instead, education made all the difference in his life.
The Choice Bus initiative was created to show students the long-term effects of their educational choices.
The Choice Bus is a fleet of three buses that travel around the U.S. They have been decked out to appear as a half school bus and half prison bus, showing children what their choices in regard to education can really mean. More than 2 million children have visited the Choice Bus, an experience-based learning tool that features a four-minute minute video quiz about the differences between dropouts and college grads and testimonials from prisoners. After the film, a curtain is opened to reveal a prison cell, including beds and toilets, demonstrating the reality of where negative choices can lead. After spending some time in the cell, students are given a pledge card to make positive choices.
Presenters help students see the value of staying in school and of pursuing further opportunities — whether college, trade school, or other constructive paths. The goal is to show that a choice that may seem small and insignificant at a time when you are young can actually have far-reaching consequences, potentially for the rest of your life. It’s not a scared-straight-style program, but it provides real information to children who will someday be faced with real decisions.
The Choice Bus goes hand in hand with the foundation’s Inside Out documentary, which also emphasizes the importance of education through interviews with inmates who talk about how their lives would have been different if they had made other decisions and stayed in school.
Education is imperative to stem the school-to-prison pipeline. Seventy-five percent of inmates are high school dropouts, and 80 percent are functionally illiterate. About 7,000 students drop out of school every day — to the tune of more than 1.2 million each year. Post-secondary education also pays off financially. On average, college graduates will make more than $1 million more in their lifetimes than their peers that do not pursue further education or training. Any initiative that helps reduce mass incarceration and improve lives for youth is a move in the right direction.
The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation hopes to empower youth by making them understand the importance of education. A quote from Victor Hugo lines the walls of each Choice Bus: “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” That’s certainly their hope.
Published May 4, 2017 by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA | Last Updated by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA on Jul 19, 2023 at 11:44 pm
