MEDIA CONTACT:

STEVEN ENGELHARDT (314) 504-4029

Later this week, the State of Missouri is expected to take over control of the St. Louis Public Schools and appoint a transitional board to oversee the troubled district.  That regrettable decision will mark another sad milestone in a series of shared failures that have left 33,000 of our children in largely dysfunctional schools that are dangerously disconnected from the community.

Opportunities Lost…

 In 1998, while serving in the Missouri State Senator, I was the principal sponsor of Senate Bill 781, which established the framework to settle the 27-year long St. Louis desegregation case and restore local control over the St. Louis Public Schools.  Prior to that settlement, the district had been under the supervision of a federal judge.  So for me, this state takeover is especially painful, because I had hoped that restoring local control was the key to improving both academic achievement and community involvement.  But the dismal results over the last nine years prove that local control alone, is not enough.

Lessons Learned…

The final version of SB 781 included a fatal flaw.  I had argued that instead of the current system of electing school board members on a citywide basis, future school boards should be elected from non-partisan, neighborhood-based, sub-districts. Each school board member would have been required to live in the area that they represented. That would have produced a school board with real grass roots support and a tangible connection to the neighborhood schools in each part of the city.  Sadly, the final bill contained a technical error that did not allow for sub-districts.

As a result, we have endured multiple slates of citywide school board candidates, who are selected by, funded by, and beholden to politicians, unions or major business interests.  This system has produced successive failed school board majorities who suffer from frequent bouts of personal dramatics, childish behavior, and irresponsible financial practices.  The only consistent characteristic of these citywide slates is a complete disconnection from students, neighborhoods and the taxpayers who foot the bill.  In the future, when local control is restored, I urge the state legislature to correct this fundamental flaw by changing the law to allow for the election of the St. Louis Board of Education by sub-districts.

A Broken Connection to the Community…

At the time of the settlement, we also thought that the community would welcome local control and become full partners in ensuring the future success of the St. Louis Public Schools.  Unfortunately, that energized community educational partnership never materialized. 

I continue to be amazed that many residents, property owners and businesspeople think that they have no stake in the future of this school district.  Some have simply given up on public education in the city.  Others no longer have school-aged children, or their children attend private or parochial schools.  Still others would like to help, but the current cloud of instability and confusion surrounding the school board and the administration discourages them from reaching out.  This disconnection from the community is a gaping hole that needs to be filled.

When local control is restored, along with electing the school board by sub-district, an essential element of building an urban district that works should be a new, comprehensive community partnership program.  Our St. Louis community is rich in talent, energy and people who understand that everyone who lives, works, owns property, or pays taxes in the City of St. Louis, is a shareholder in the ultimate success or failure of our public schools. 

Every school in the city should have a designated partner from the business community and a corps of dedicated volunteers who engage students and teachers on a regular basis.  This new partnership program could reconnect all parts of our community in a common mission to help build our children’s future.

Since the passage of SB 781 in 1998, nine senior classes have passed through the St. Louis Public Schools.  Each year, approximately 50% of those who should have earned a high school degree, actually graduated.  That is a tragic, shared failure that should offend all of us.  The next time that we have control over the schools, let us resolve to reconnect the board to our neighborhoods and the schools to all of us…the shareholders who actually own them.