KANSAS CITY, MO. (AP) -- Numerous parents in Missouri's two largest districts are looking into taking advantage of a rarely used state law that would compel failing districts to pay to send kids to the suburbs, a divisive new front in the debate over school choice.

Missouri's education law was changed in 1993 to require unaccredited schools to pick up the tab for tuition and transportation for youngsters living within their boundaries to attend accredited schools in the same county or a neighboring one.

By most accounts, the rule has been used just once, and with troubling results. Now, parents in Kansas City are breathing new life into the law. The historically troubled district loses its accredited status Jan. 1. The St. Louis and nearby Riverview Gardens districts lost their accreditation in 2007.

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