Missourians Should Be Outraged!

Ban on sale of St. Louis schools stirs anger

By David Hunn
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/10/2009

ST. LOUIS — When leaders of the St. Louis Public Schools prepared to sell a slew of old school buildings a year ago, they moved to ban a few businesses from buying. They barred liquor stores, landfills, distilleries, as well as shops that sell "so-called 'sexual toys.'"

They also blackballed charter schools.

Now, as the school board debates closing as many as 29 more buildings in the shrinking city district, and as new charter schools search desperately for space, a swell of anger is rising up against that restriction.

Legislators have readied resolutions in Jefferson City asking the district to remove the ban. Pro-charter and school-choice groups have sent around press releases. Residents worry about the empty buildings that will rot their neighborhoods.
And charter school leaders continue to grumble that they are public schools and should be able to use public buildings.

"It's not about getting anything for free," said Aaron North, director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association. "Charter schools just want to use those buildings to educate children."

City schools board member and CEO Rick Sullivan said the board will likely revisit the subject, with all this recent hoopla.

But, on further discussion, he chuckles a little. It's not like this is an unusual restriction, he says, in the business world. Companies often bar sales to direct competitors.

And, according to the district, that's exactly how this restriction got started.

INKING THE BAN

Leaders of the St. Louis Public Schools aren't sure whether they had a written policy before 2007 that banned charter schools from district buildings.

But, with charters booming — taking students and dollars from the district for the last decade — charter school leaders say there was certainly an unwritten rule.

"We tried to buy three," said Susan Uchitelle, board member at Confluence Academy, a charter school with three campuses and 2,700 students in St. Louis.

"We finally just gave up," Uchitelle said. "It was made very clear they weren't going to sell to us. They'd show them to us. They'd let us walk through them. But then they'd take them off the market."

Then, in April 2007, developer Sam Glasser engineered the purchase of King Tri-A school, on North Kingshighway, with no hint as to his intentions.

The district says he passed the building to Imagine Schools, a national company that starts and runs charters across the country. Glasser says he was acting on behalf of Imagine all along. Regardless, district leaders weren't happy.

"They wrote a letter to my law firm saying you're not supposed to do that," Glasser said Monday.

And the next fall, Imagine opened its Academy of Careers Middle School there.

That year, St. Louis Public Schools chief operating officer Deanna Anderson contacted district lawyers and asked for a new sale contract, with a deed restriction barring sales to charter schools for 100 years.

The board approved the new contract at the end of 2007.

FINDING A BUILDING

Now, Anderson says, the district has six properties on the market for more than $7 million, not including 15 others that had previously been closed and mothballed.

Meanwhile, charter schools continue to multiply.

There are 17 campuses in the city now, serving 9,500 students, or about one-quarter of the city school population, and charter leaders expect eight more to open by the fall of 2010.

Of those, six are still looking for school buildings — including two that plan to open in the fall.

"It's still hard to find a place for your schools," said Rhonda Broussard, executive director of St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, set to open this fall. "The consequences to us are largely monetary. It means we need to raise more money and spend more money in order to have a viable school facility for our students."

Broussard said she could buy an old St. Louis Public Schools building for between $800,000 and $1.5 million. But converting nonschool buildings? $2 million to $6 million, she said, state dollars that could go to the classroom.

The topic is so difficult, she can't even bring it up with others who hope to start charters, she said, with whom she shares nearly everything else. "Facilities is taboo — because we know how hard they are to find."

Broussard says her school is nearly ready. Her French- and Spanish-immersion program is set. Families are already interested. She has even begun hiring. But her building?

"That's the only thing, at this point," she said, "that's uncertain."

HURTING THE CITY

But neighborhoods across the city see far more uncertainty.

State Rep. T.D. El-Amin, a Democrat who represents much of north St. Louis, recently toured the neighborhoods with closed — or possibly closing — schools.

El-Amin is backing a resolution to pressure the district to reverse its policy. He pointed out schools that shut long ago, and ones that just closed their doors, some separated by just a few streets.

He understands that the district has shrunk sharply over the last decade, and can't possibly keep all its schools open. But schools, in so many neighborhoods, he said, are often the only anchor left.

"I'm telling you," he said. "Some of these streets, you just hear shots, all night long."

Residents — on their porches, watching their children, washing their cars — stopped to lament the loss with him.

"You losing all these schools," said Lamarr Paige, 38, a father of six. "And all the buildings just sitting there, just sitting there!"

It's not only the vandalism, theft and violence a vacant building draws, they all said.

There's something deeper.

It can change a kid's perspective on all schools, El-Amin said, not just the vacant ones.

The kids look up, he said, and they don't see children on the playground, or in the classroom, faces peering out of the tall school windows.

They see grass growing up through cracks in the asphalt.

They see broken glass, stones, and target practice to come.

Missouri Ranking Below What It Should Be

From the Office of Representative Timothy Jones, 89th District:

Missouri ranks 28th in National Education Study as Students Fail Key Testing Measures

State legislative group targets new ways to fund education given tough economic times and state budget woes

Jefferson City, MO—A majority of students in Missouri public schools failed to meet proficiency levels in fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics and reading, and SAT and ACT scores stagnated, despite decades-long increases in public spending, according to a new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Using nationally recognized test results, the ALEC Report Card on American Education ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia accordingly, one being the best and 51 the worst. Minnesota placed first in the unique ranking, Washington, D.C. last, and Missouri 28.

“Missouri students are barely above the national average in test scores, and they are well below national proficiency levels. This is unacceptable,” said Rep. Tim Jones (R-District 89). “The high cost and lackluster results of Missouri public education can be curbed by common-sense reforms rooted in accountability and choice. Such programs have proved cost-effective and successful in states across the country and popular among parents and students.”

The report also provides extensive data from 1987-88 to 2007-08 on state and federal funding, school resources, graduation rates, GED completion rates, and school-choice initiatives, including tax credit, scholarship, and charter school programs—alternatives to public education ALEC supports. With the federal administration expected to ramp up education spending through a host of new public programs, the evidence is undeniably clear: Further government funding does not produce corresponding results.

“If legislators are concerned about funding public education, not to worry,” said Jeff W. Reed, director of ALEC’s Education Task Force. “States across the country have proved that through education reforms rooted in freedom and accountability, more can be done with less. But it is up to state lawmakers to give parents and students the opportunity to choose what works best for them in securing a promising future.”

About ALEC

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators, with more than 2,000 state legislative members from all 50 states, and 78 former members serving in the U.S. Congress. Its mission is to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, individual liberty, and limited government.

Stimulus Package to Help Education?

The current Obama administration and Congress is trying to advance a $825 billion stimulus package. The details are exhausting and tedious. I am here to focus on the education section of it.

This excerpt is taken from an opinion analysis in the Wall Street Journal:
"...Oh, and don't forget education, which would get $66 billion more. That's more than the entire Education Department spent a mere 10 years ago and is on top of the doubling under President Bush. Some $6 billion of this will subsidize university building projects. If you think the intention here is to help kids learn, the House declares on page 257 that "No recipient . . . shall use such funds to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools." Horrors: Some money might go to nonunion teachers."

Does anyone seriously believe more money dumped into education will fix the failures of the entire system? More and more money has been consistently poured into it over the years and there has been no improvement.

Two points: stop wasting money on a broken system and start looking for ways to fix it.

School Choice....Who Favors?

The critics of school choice are very quick to jump on any bandwagon to keep portraying choice as a negative movement. Personally, I don't quite understand why people can be against every child getting a great education. I attended private school all my life and feel I gained a tremendous advantage over those who attending sub par public schools. Why should I have that leg up in life just because my parents could afford it? Aren't I already given more advantages in life? Shouldn't all children have access to the excellent education?
Now I think of the Obama family. I would never expect a family of their means to ever send their children to failing schools just to prove a point. Would I ever want to hold my children back just to make some statement? Absolutely not! However, I think President Obama, while he looked into the schools to put his children in, should see that many of the public schools in Chicago and DC are not great. If they are not good enough for his kids, why are they good enough for millions of other kids? Why shouldn't all those kids be given choices like his?
This was taken from CNS News:

School Choice: The Real Test
Monday, January 12, 2009
By Ed Feulner

It’s official: President-elect Barack Obama’s two daughters are attending Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

The decision comes as no surprise. That elite private school launched former first daughter Chelsea Clinton on the path to success years ago. And the Obama girls are certainly used to attending a private school.

The Obamas steered clear of the Chicago’s failing public schools, where 34 percent of the students fail state reading tests and only about half the pupils graduate from high school. So there was never any reason to expect the Obama family to subject Sasha and Malia to D.C.’s failing public schools.

Yet as president, Obama will have some promises to keep. Not only to his daughters, but to all Americans. During his campaign, he vowed, “We cannot be satisfied until every child in America -- I mean every child -- has the same chance for a good education that we want for our own children.”

And the best way to give students that chance is to give their parents a choice. If parents were allowed to pick their children’s school (as the Obamas have now done twice), they’d pick the best available school, not merely the one that happens to be in their neighborhood.

Obama’s decision should serve as a teaching moment for his administration’s education policymakers. Lesson number one would be that spending doesn’t equate to success.

D.C. spends some $14,000 annually on each child in its public schools. A lot of that funding comes from the federal treasury, which means all American taxpayers are subsidizing the D.C. public schools. That’s one of the highest per-pupil costs in the nation. Yet if the District were a state, it would rank 51^st -- dead last -- in test scores.

To address these failings, Congress created the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program four years ago. The plan provides low-income children the chance to attend a school of their parents’ choice. Some 1,900 disadvantaged children now attend private schools in the District.

Parents are happier with the schools they’ve picked, and the students are making progress, too. A testing evaluation shows that participating students scored higher than their peers who remained in public school.

Sadly, candidate Obama seemed to be leaning in the wrong direction. “What I do oppose,” he told the American Federation of Teachers, “is spending public money for private school vouchers. We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools, not throwing our hands up and walking away from them.”

Yet real reform would involve expanding the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program so that all children in the District can have the chance to attend a safe and effective school. That’s not “throwing up our hands.” That’s doing something. Something other than simply throwing more money at a problem. We’d be expanding a successful program, so students could attend better schools and their parents could be more involved in their education.

The Obamas are already a role model for this, of course. They arrive in D.C. as an intact family, and both Barack and Michelle are clearly involved in their children’s education. The key is to take this to the next level by making school choice available to all parents in the nation’s capital.

Powerful politicians of all stripes routinely exercise school choice. A recent survey of Congress found that 37 percent of representatives and 45 percent of senators had sent at least one child to private school. The Obama administration could pave the way for a better education system nationwide by extending school choice to those less fortunate than Washington’s elite power brokers.

That would be a change Americans deserve.

Charter School Video

This video shows the benefits of charter to parents, children, and the community. This school looks wonderful and the kids are showing great achievements because of it.
Charter schools are a great way to give parents and children choices beyond the public schools in their area. If I lived in Kansas City, I would most definitely want my children to go there.
It is wonderful Kansas City and St. Louis can have charter schools; why should the rest of the state be denied those same rights?

Florida's Education Reform Methods Paying Off

Some states fare better than others in education and I have been closely following the ones that succeed. Florida has been on my radar because of what I believe are strong reform methods. I know they allow for charter schools and grant special needs children school choice. Florida has been one of my strong examples that reform do help and others states should look for guidance. Unfortunately, not everyone is going to listen to me.
These are some crucial excerpts from the Washington Times:

But if President-elect Barack Obama wants to improve our education system, he should look at what Jeb Bush did in Florida, ...
Three years before NCLB was enacted, then-Gov. Jeb Bush decided to set clear accountability standards, and to back them up with school choice for students and meaningful rewards for good teachers.

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) is the gold standard of national education achievement tests. It is not a state-designed test. Over the past decade, NAEP reading scores for Florida fourth graders have soared nine percentage points - more than twice the national gain. Florida's eighth-grade reading gains were also almost double the national average. Math scores also registered solid gains, exceeding the national average.

Most impressive has been the success of minorities. Scores among Florida's low-income black and Hispanic students have risen much faster than the national average. Hispanic fourth-graders in the Sunshine State now boast reading scores higher than the all-student average in 15 states, including California.

How did Jeb Bush get results so much better than his brother's national program? Four simple but effective ideas.

First, the state didn't play games with test standards. Florida's test methodology measures what students actually knows, not just how well they do compared with other Florida students. And each public school in the state gets its own A-F report card annually. Successful schools get bonuses. Failing schools get tough remedial action.

Second, Florida ended "everyone-passes" social promotion at the third grade. Failing students get early remedial help, not a free pass.

Third, Florida got serious about school choice, promoting a range of public and private options. For instance, 20,000 students with disabilities now receive private-school scholarships. And more than 100,000 children attend charter schools.

And, it turns out, school choice delivers an added bonus. The Urban Institute, a leading national think tank in Washington, found that competition spurred a general improvement in student achievement in Florida's "F" schools. When faced with accountability pressure and choice, these schools tried new and better ways to raise standards.

Fourth, Jeb Bush acted to reward good teachers, while circumventing union-devised red tape that often keeps excellent educators out of the classroom. The state awards large bonuses to teachers with demonstrated success. And Florida instituted alternative paths to teacher certification in order to attract top-flight educators who would be stymied by the normal bureaucratic rules. Today, about half of all new Florida teachers use the alternative certification route.

Overwhelming Support for Parental Options

Polling results from Richmond, Petersburg, and Norfolk neighborhoods in Virginia show support for more parental options. According to the press release by the Thomas Jefferson Institute and Black Alliance for Educational Options, (BAEO), parents in these areas have high levels of dissatisfaction with their public schools and are hugely in favor of school choice.
These results are quite similar to those released in Missouri in 2007. The Show Me Institute released those results here and findings were that parents overwhelming supported choice in Missouri as well.
Here are the details about Virginia's study.
My question is...if so many parents are in support of choice, why won't the unions and legislators let them have it?!

Black Neighborhoods in Richmond, Petersburg Norfolk:
Support for More Parental Options

1/9/2009 - Parents in majority black Petersburg, Richmond and Norfolk neighborhoods have high levels of dissatisfaction with their public schools and overwhelmingly support school choice for parents in their school division.

That's the conclusion of a recently-completed survey of more than 2,200 voters in overwhelming African-American voting precincts, conducted by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy and the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO).

More than 57 % of survey respondents with school-aged children were dissatisfied with their public school system, versus only 31.2% who were satisfied.

More importantly, 76.3% of all respondents (parents and non-parents alike) favored giving parents more educational options for their children, including support for tax credits for businesses making donations to K-12 scholarship funds for low income students (65.1% support), personal tax credits for donations to K-12 scholarship funds for low-income students (68.3%), grants to allow students with disabilities to attend the private school of their choice (88.8%) and public charter schools (70.3%).

BAEO President Gerard Robinson, contributing author of Educational Freedom in Urban America: Brown v. Board After Half a Century, said the results contradicted what often passes for conventional wisdom. "Opponents of school choice often raise the specter of segregation in opposing choice, and it is true that choice was once used as a weapon to oppose integration. But what I think we're seeing now is a new generation whose focus is on educational excellence for their children, rather than re-fighting battles that have largely been won."

"There are a whole range of successful options available that have never been used in Virginia," Robinson continued. "Parents and non-parents alike know it is time to provide new opportunities for Virginia children at risk of failure."

Jefferson Institute vice president Chris Braunlich noted support for choice was highest where student performance was at its worst. "The levels of support for all parental choice options was highest in Petersburg, where only one of seven schools is fully accredited. After years of watching the education system fiddle around the edge of reform without results, Petersburg voters are very clear: they want to see wholesale change take place. The children of Petersburg are still without the opportunity to learn and to graduate with the skills that will make them successful."