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problems in St. Louis and Kansas City, problems that do not exist on the same scale in other parts of the state. A rural lawmaker, fearing S.B. 658 would favor urban districts over rural areas, sought to defeat the bill with an amendment that would require all school districts to offer it. This tactic backfired. The House accepted his amendment and passed the bill handily. The measure won almost unanimous consent in the Senate. Thus, although family participation remained voluntary, school district participation became mandatory.

Bond signed the bill into law June 12, 1984, capping a 12-year effort by his administration and the Winter-led coalition. Funding would have to wait until the next session of the legislature, however, under Missouri statutory procedures. If parent-child education was to get under way immediately after a 1985 appropriation, a cadre of parent educators had to be trained immediately. Once again foundation and corporate checkbooks were opened, and a staff was ready that year to provide services for 10 percent of the state's eligible families, the proportion covered by the first $2.8 million appropriation.

HOW THE FORMULA WORKS

All Missouri parents with children under the age of three are eligible to participate in PAT programs. However, the school district is not obligated to provide services beyond the level of state reimbursement. As a result, unless a district chooses to supplement the funds it receives from the state, these services are available to only a fraction of the school district's eligible parents.

Districts are reimbursed for services on the basis of participation levels. With an increase in appropriations to $5.7 million in 1987, the average statewide participation level grew to 20 percent (31,800 families). In the program's third year, 1988, funds were increased to just over $11 million, providing services to 30 percent of eligible families (53,000 families) statewide.

One of the major functions of the Missouri PAT program is marketing. Because this program is not targeted, marketing must be directed to parents across the spectrum of social and economic groups.

Program directors welcome middle-income parents for many reasons. Foremost among these reasons is the conviction that if PAT has an economically and socially diverse clientele it cannot be labeled a welfare program. The enrollment rate among young professionals is substantial. "Yuppie parents are out to get everything they can for their children," one St. Louis observer said.

Special efforts must be made to recruit lower-income parents, who do not respond so readily to such programs. At the beginning of the 1989-90 school year, the Parents As Teachers Center began an advertising