The Choice Bus is half school bus and half prison cell.

The Choice Bus is a powerful demonstration of the impact of education, self-respect and good choices on a student’s future.

Charles Henderson Middle School Principal Aaron Brown said The Choice Bus drives home the message that education and good choices place students in a position for a successful future and that dropping out of school throws that probability away.

The Choice Bus was at CHMS Wednesday and followed an assembly presentation by Dr. Shelley Stewart on Tuesday.

“Dr. Stewart told the students about the hardships that he has endured and how he overcame those hurdles in his life,” Brown said. “He focused on what he could do and not on what he couldn’t do. He told the students that education is important. That it lays a strong foundation. Without an education, there are many limitations. With a strong educational foundation, the sky is the limit.”

The Choice Bus is part of the efforts of The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation to reduce the dropout rate among high school students. The foundation was established in 2007 to honor Dr. Stewart’s mother,

The CHMS students entered The Choice Bus in groups of 24 and were seated on the bus.

A 25-minute interactive presentation showed the relevance of education to career choices and lifetime earning potential and freedom. Prison inmates told their stories and how their decisions to drop out of school had landed them in prison.

Chris Rice, Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, spoke to the students in a way they could understand. He said having a good education can mean the difference between “income and incarceration.”

“A college graduate will earn $1 million more over his or her lifetime than a high school dropout,” Rice said. “Seventy-five percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts.”

Rice pulled the curtain behind him to reveal a full-scale replica of a prison cell.

“This is where you can end up when you make the wrong choices,” he said. “When you enter this 8×8-foot cell, all of your privacy rights are taken away. You will share this cell with three other inmates. The toilet and the lavatory are one piece and they are out in the open. Somebody is watching everything you do. There’s absolutely no privacy in a jail cell.”

Rice said there’s no cable TV in a jail cell. There are no videos and no cell phones.

“Men get to take showers twice and week and women take three,” he said.

“If you are fortunate to get to work, you make about 30 cents an hour and that’s to buy hygiene products and necessary things like toilet paper. If you run out, you’re just out. Being in jail is not meant to be comfortable.”

Rice encouraged the students to experience the jail cell.

“Look at it; touch it; smell it before you make the wrong choices,” he said. “This is not where you want to go. Education is the key to life, to success, to freedom, to everything. Everybody dreams and it’s never too early to start planning and training for those dreams.

“When you lose your dreams, you get lost. Don’t let anybody discourage you. Dropping out of school throws it all away.”

Brown thanked The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation for its dedication to keeping kids in school, to the City of Troy for providing funding that helped bring The Choice Bus to Troy and Dr. Lee Hicks for his efforts that have resulted in the declining dropout rate at Troy City Schools.