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PUB
DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
City of St. Louis, Missouri. Our goal is to cast a critical eye
on lawmakers, their policies, and those that have influence upon
them, and to educate our readers about legislation and the political
processes that affect our daily lives.
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Watch this 7-minute video of yesterday's meeting of the State Board of Education.
A few things you should know about the loss of accreditation for the St. Louis Public Schools:
1. The loss of accreditation will occur in June, meaning that current high school seniors will graduate under SLPS' current "provisionally accredited" status;
2. The loss of accreditation means that SLPS will have to pay for students to attend a St. Louis County district if the student's parent requests it;
3. No one knows what, if any, powers the elected school boards will have over the years;
4. No one knows what changes the new "transitional" school board will implement;
5. No one knows about the legal status of all the current contracts with SLPS, which are all between the vendors (or employees) and the St. Louis Board of Education;
6. Gov. Matt Blunt's pick to head the new "transitional" school board still has to be confirmed by the State Senate. Can we expect to see Sen. Maida Coleman lead a filibuster?
Is there anything else you can think of? Post it below.
As expected, St. Louis Public Schools has been stripped of its accreditation, and as PUB DEF exclusively reported this morning, Rick Sullivan, chairman of Chesterfield-based McBride and Son Homes, has been named CEO.
The district will retain its provisional accreditation status until June.
A group of SLPS students disrupted the meeting of the State Board of Education moments ago with chants of "no takeover!" The Board went into temporary recess while order was restored.
Capitol Police officers were attempting to restore order when they got into a confrontation with one student in particular. The young man darted from the room and was chased through the Harry S. Truman State Building before being caught and maced outside of the building.
An angry crowd gathered around and followed the officers as they handcuffed and dragged the boy into the lower levels of the building.
Check back later for video... Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless
A source tells Pub Def that the State Board of Education will indeed vote today to strip St. Louis Public Schools of its accreditation and will select Gov. Matt Blunt's pick to head the newly established "transitional" board to lead the district.
According to the source, Blunt's pick is Rick Sullivan, chairman of Chesterfield-based McBride & Son Homes.
Other sources tell Pub Def to expect at least two different lawsuits to be filed within 24 hours of the state's action. Pub Def will be in Jefferson City today. Check back later for video...
The Missouri State Legislature right now is considering several bills on capital punishment. Some, like House Bill 258 and Senate Bill 354, seek to abolish the death penalty all together. Others, like HB 445 and SB 439, seek to put a moratorium on all executions so that the process can be examined.
Last week, the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety held a public hearing on HB 445, sponsored by State Rep. Bill Deeken (R-Cole County). The committee heard moving testimony detailing some of the injustices and inconsistencies that exist in the current system.
State Rep. Connie Johnson (D-St. Louis City) was the last to testify before the committee. She briefly described the circumstances around the trial of her cousin, Marlin Gray, who was executed on October 26, 2005. She said that cases have recently been ordered to be retried for reasons that also existed in Gray's case, but now it is too late.
"Before you execute somebody we need to make sure all the I's are dotted and all the T's are crossed," said Johnson. "Because once you pull that trigger you cannot bring that person back to life."
The legendary reporter who still today is considered one of the finest and most respected journalists in America, Bob Woodward, will be speaking at St. Louis University tonight.
SLU College Democrats, College Republicans, and the Great Issues Committee are sponsoring tonight's event, which begins at 7:00 p.m. in the St. Louis Room of the Busch Student Center (Grand Ave. at Laclede). The event is free to the public and will be followed by a book-signing and refreshments.
From Wikipedia: Robert "Bob" Woodward is assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. While an investigative reporter for that newspaper, Woodward, working with his co-employee Carl Bernstein helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. Woodward has written 12 best-selling non-fiction books and has twice contributed reporting to efforts that collectively earned the Post and its National Reporting staff a Pulitzer Prize.
The group of St. Louis Public Schools students that camped out in City Hall for five days last week are on their way to Jefferson City this morning for a meeting with the Commissioner of Education.
When the students meet with Commissioner Kent King they will be pleading with him not to strip the school district of its accreditation status in the middle of the school year. As the students told Pub Def last week, while they oppose a state takeover all together, they say it makes even less sense to do it before the end of the school year — especially because it remains unclear to students what effect the loss of accreditation will have on their post-graduation options.
The students will be staying overnight in Jefferson City in order to attend tomorrow's meeting of the State Board of Education. They will be joined by busloads of stakeholders, including teachers and parents, also opposing the takeover.
Local 420, the teachers' union, is organizing the bus trip, which will start at the union offices, 2710 Hampton Ave., at 6:00 a.m. The riders plan a rally before the meeting and to make known their opposition to a state takeover or transitional school board during the DESE meeting.
"DESE can not continue to ignore the will of the people of St. Louis," said union President Mary Armstrong.
UPDATE: From DESE...
Commissioner of Education D. Kent King will meet today with a delegation of about a dozen students from the St. Louis Public Schools. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss concerns about the potential impact on students if the St. Louis Public Schools are unaccredited by the State Board of Education. The meeting will be at 1:30 p.m. today in Room 470 of the Governor Office Building, 200 Madison Street, Jefferson City. The meeting is closed to news media, current members of the St. Louis Board of Education and other adults. The parties will be available to meet the news media at the conclusion of the meeting.
During our last trip to Jefferson City, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard talked to Pub Def about his latest education proposal, the "Missouri 4 For More Program". House Bill 259 creates the new program, which would allow parents of K-12 school children to receive four hours of paid leave per month to work with their children in their children's school. In exchange for giving the parents time off work, employers would receive a state tax credit.
Since a few weeks before Election Day, one or more people have been basically spamming the site with ignorant comments. So until further notice, no one will be allowed to post comments anonymously anymore.
If you don't already have one, you need to register for a Blogger or Google account (it's free) to post a comment on this site.
Pub Def regrets not covering State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin's admirable bike ride this weekend from St. Louis 143 miles to the State Capitol in Jefferson City. The City Hall sit-in kept us busy (can't wait for those interns).
El-Amin and his brother, Larry Bastain, Jr., made the three-day ride along the Katy Trail to bring attention to Kidney disease, a disease that almost took the life of their father six years ago. El-Amin saved his dad's life by donating one of his own kidneys.
"He added six years on my life by donating one of his kidneys," father Larry Bastain, Sr. told TV station KOMU. "For them to ride 140, 150 miles, for such a great cause, this is a day to be proud of."
Political consultant to both the Blue and Red teams Tim Person has taken his perspective to the airwaves. Person is now co-hosting "The Real Deal" radio show with Syl Wilson. Person says the show has a "current affairs format with a little bit (or more) of politics just to make things interesting."
The show can be heard Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4—5:00 p.m. on WGNU 920AM.
Opponents of the America's war in Iraq staged a demonstration downtown yesterday to mark the 4th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of the Middle Eastern nation.
Hundreds of faux headstones stood in the park area at the corner of Market and Chestnut to symbolize the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Americans killed and wounded since the beginning of the conflict.
One blog commenter said that following the end of their own demonstration, several students who had been in City Hall walked over to join the anti-war rally.
The St. Louis Public Schools students who engaged in non-violent civil protest to bring attention to the issues on the minds of thousands of the city's young people ended their nearly one week long sit-in Sunday with a well organized media event in City Hall.
The students announced they will be taking their cause to Jefferson City this week. They are scheduled to meet with State Education Commissioner Kent King ahead of Thursday's meeting of the State Board of Education. The students plan to ask King about the effect the loss of accreditation will have on their college futures.
In a press release issued last week, contrary to what has been reported in the Post-Dispatch, DESE could not say with any certainty that lack of accreditation won't negatively affect students, saying they have no control over colleges' admission policies.
"As far as state education officials are concerned, students aspiring to attend college should not be negatively affected if their school district becomes unaccredited," said the statement. "However, because colleges and universities may set their own criteria for admissions and financial aid, it is possible that students could encounter obstacles in some cases."
Sunday's nearly one-hour event began with the presentation of the students' video diary...
Part 1 (9:50)
Part 2 (4:29)
The students then gave personal testimonies about why they participated in the protest...
Part 3 (14:47)
Superintendent Diana Bourisaw then spoke...
Part 4 (3:05)
And the students concluded the press conference with a Q&A session with reporters.
Part 5 (14:23)
When asked what they had learned during the past five days, one student said he learned that the media is biased.
"The media would come in with smiles on their faces and we would see one thing, but when the news would come on at night we would see a totally different story like we were in two different buildings," said Howard Hughes.
The St. Louis Public Schools students that five days ago entered City Hall seeking a meeting with Mayor Francis Slay today held a press conference at which they hinted that today may be the final day of their protest.
Check back later for video from today's event, which included remarks from Superintendent Diana Bourisaw and details about a meeting scheduled for this week between the students and state education officials in Jefferson City.
The group of St. Louis Public Schools students engaged in Day 5 of their sit-in demonstration at City Hall has sent out a press release announcing a press conference this afternoon.
Superintendent Diana Bourisaw is scheduled to join the students for the event which may, as we reported yesterday, announce an end to the City Hall sit-in and a re-targeting of the students' efforts from the now-vacationing city mayor to state education officials who are expected to meet Thursday to strip SLPS of its accreditation.
Press Release
Who: St. Louis Public Schools students and Dr. Diana Bourisaw
What: The students of St. Louis City Public Schools will hold a press conference.
Where: Downtown City Hall – Room 208 "The Kennedy Room"
When: March 18, 2007 promptly @ 2:30 p.m.
Topic: "Deconstructing the Myth: Why Our Scholarships and College Admission Are Still At Risk"
The following video was shot and edited by St. Louis Public Schools students who are entering the fifth day of an ongoing sit-in protest at City Hall.
This video shows most of the students' Thursday morning meeting with Mayor Francis Slay. It also shows some of the confusion and confrontation that followed the meeting.
