Only 23% of St. Louis students are reading at their grade level

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The founder of Coalition with STL Kids says the city's education system is in a state of crisis .

Chester Asher says only 23 percent of St Louis students are reading at their grade level, but it's even worst for African Americans kids in St. Louis.

"For Black kids, that 13%," said Asher on Total Information A.M. "What type of futures are we setting them up for?"

Asher says the cause of the broken St. Louis education system stems from many factor, including the crack epidemic in the 1980s that ripped through many households.

Asher called out the St. Louis Public Schools Board as one of the root causes for the failures saying they are 'comfortable with the status quo.'

"I can't understand for the life of me their comfort for a raging crisis on our hand," said Asher.

Asher says he has attempted to attend multiple school board meetings to attempt to get the school board to addressed the issue, but he says they have refused to solve the issue.

"Really simple things that, they really refuse to take common sense approaches and actions to help our children," said Asher. "We have a group, Black Men Read, that offers free tutoring and have told them 'Hey SLPS, you have kids who are reading way below grade level and we would love to come in help (in November).' They told us 'get back to us in April'"

Asher says he has helped get more kids in St. Louis to improve their reading, with his group working with Normandy Schools Collaborative to do that, but with the limited resources they have, Asher can the goal is to eventually push school districts to do things like offer in person tutoring.

"At the end of the day, we can only recruit about 100 people to tutor, which is great but the goal is really push schools to offer in-person tutoring for every kid is behind in grade level," said Asher. "We know it works cause there's a bunch of research to back that up, but when you seemingly hit deaf ears, you have to wonder why? Why is it when black kids are faced with a challenge, people are silent and resistant to making change."

KMOX has reached out to St. Louis Public Schools for comment on Asher's interview but have not yet heard back.