The situation in St. Louis is absolutely horrendous. The State Board of Education is poised to recommend (they're meeting on February 15th and 16th and could make a final decision at this meeting) that the St. Louis school board be disbanded and replaced by a three-member commission. Of the three members, one will be appointed by Republican Gov. Matt "I Never Met a Voucher I Didn't Like" Blunt (son of U.S. House Republican Roy Blunt) and another by Republican Mayor Francis "Privatize The Whole Village" Slay. Gee, I wonder what direction this new triumvirate would take RE: the St. Louis public schools.
The State Board will be acting on a recommendation from the Danforth Commission, put together at the request of State Dept. of Ed Commissioner Kent King.
Current SLPS Board member Peter Downs wrote an eloquent history of the current situation and a powerful defense of the current democratically-elected board. Find it here.
If the State Board recommends a take-over, it will radically undermine the free and fair elections that took place in April 2006, when Mayor Slay's incumbent candidates were soundly defeated by Downs and Donna Jones. It would also mean that Slay would regain de facto control over the schools despite the fact that voters overwhelmingly rejected the puppets he had on the board doing his bidding.
1 comment:
In response to the comments by Peter Campbell on the state takeover, I would like to say, "WELL SAID."
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