There is a crisis in public education in America, in Missouri, and especially in St. Louis. With 2008 being both an election year and, because of term-limits, the final legislative session for many legislators, it should come as little surprise that several bills have been filed recently taking stabs at the causes and symptoms of an undereducated population of young people.

State Representative Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) filed legislation this week that seeks to hold schools accountable for the academic success rates of their students. The bill would require the district’s accountability officer to ensure schools within the district are raised to an acceptable level of academic performance within two years.

“Right now we have far too many children in our district who are reading below grade level and the only way we can change this disturbing trend is by holding our schools accountable for the academic success rate among these children,” said Rep. Nasheed.

It’s not clear where additional funding for Nasheed’s mandate would come from or how districts would be penalized for failing to meet the requirements.

State Rep. Rodney Hubbard* (D-St. Louis) has introduced a bill aimed at reducing the number of dropouts by tying school attendance to something most teenagers value more than homework — the privilege of driving.

Hubbard’s House Bill 2078 makes eligibility for a driver’s license for 15-18 year-olds contingent upon proof that they have complied with certain school-related standards, including attendance and passing grades.

Though it has fallen in recent months, the dropout rate in St. Louis Public Schools remains high. Just as high are tensions between the two boards leading the district — one elected, and one appointed. Legislation has been introduced to put the power to run the city schools back into the hands of the elected board.

Senate Bill 1129, sponsored by State Senator Maida Coleman (D-St. Louis), seeks to repeal the law which authorized the creation of the Special Administrative Board led by real estate developer Rick Sullivan, who Governor Matt Blunt appointed to run the city schools. Just this week, Sullivan and the SAB surprised many, including Superintendent Diana Bourisaw, when the asked her to reapply for her job, effectively firing her after just 19 months.

“I have little confidence that the governor’s handpicked henchman will do the right thing for our students when he chooses a new superintendent,” said Senator Coleman.

*Hubbard is a client of A D French & Associates

Re: Your “Leaky Richard” article in today’s “Political Eye” column

To: cking@stlamerican.com, areid@stlamerican.com, dsuggs@stlamerican.com

I assure you I’ve been covering the schools beat long enough to have lots of sources at all levels, from classrooms to administrative, and the person that tipped me about Bourisaw’s firing was not Richard Gaines or any other member of the Special Administrative Board.

You owe Mr. Gaines an apology.

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Antonio D. French
Editor-in-Chief, PubDef.net

The following misrepresentation printed in the Feb. 14, 2008 edition of the St. Louis American:

Leaky Richard?

Antonio D. French at Pub Def got the jump on the news that the newly confirmed Rick Sullivan and the SLPS Special Administrative Board he chairs was pretty much giving Diana Bourisaw the axe. That is, they offered her to apply for a job that she already had! Despite his professional relationship with school choice proponent Rodney Hubbard, French has kept fairly tight with the public school activists, and someone in that crowd, perhaps in the district offices, may have heard from the (in effect) axed super. Then again, French was still working with Lewis Reed when Reed appointed Richard Gaines to the SAB. Last we checked, Reed and French had fallen out, big time, but these things change (fast), and French and Gaines may have kept open a line of communication independent of the appointing authority himself. Gaines would have been in a hurry to get this news out about the super’s fate - reportedly he has been wanting to start a candidate search to replace Bourisaw since the day he got appointed.

State Senator Maida Coleman was not happy when she heard that St. Louis Public Schools was about to start looking for its seventh superintendent in five years.

“I believe the [Special Administrative Board] just put the final nail in the coffin of the St. Louis Public School district,” said the St. Louis Democrat. She also hinted that this new instability may be intentional.

“It may be by design in an effort to continue the attack on the public school system in St. Louis in favor of marginally efficient and questionable outcomes of charter schools,” said Coleman.

The district’s governor-appointed CEO, Rick Sullivan, said the move was not about the record of Superintendent Diana Bourisaw, who was quickly appointed in July 2006 following the sudden firing of Superintendent Creg Williams, but rather about getting in place a superintendent that can meet the long-term needs of the district.

“I don’t know if they have a favored candidate waiting in the wings to take over our city’s school system,” said Coleman, “but this decision flies in the face of assurances we had received recently that Superintendent Bourisaw would continue to serve as the leader of our school district.”

Coleman defended Bourisaw as having proven herself to be an effective leader “who cares about our students.”

“I have little confidence that the governor’s handpicked henchman will do the right thing for our students when he chooses a new superintendent,” said the senator.

Coleman also noted the timing of Bourisaw’s firing, less than a week after the Senate confirmed Sullivan’s appointment to the SAB.

“The assurances of CEO Rick Sullivan meant nothing as he completely misled his Senate sponsor, Joan Bray of St. Louis,” Coleman said.

In response to SAB’s action, Coleman has filed legislation to dissolve the Board and return local control of the St. Louis Public Schools. Senate Bill 1129 simply repeals the statute which created the transitional school district.

The elected school board of St. Louis Public Schools released the following statement tonight following the effective firing of Superintendent Diana Bourisaw by the state-authorized Special Administrative Board and forum tonight on the closing of eight more city schools:

State Control of Local Schools – No Room for Children?

Recent actions by the state appointed board (SAB) running St. Louis Public Schools make one thing very clear: the well-being of students is not one of their top concerns.

The members of the SAB clearly are following the charge laid down for them by the Missouri Board of Education: squirrel money away in an account you will never touch instead of spending it to educate city children. The state board of education established the SAB on the recommendation of a report that called for closing many schools in St. Louis in order to transfer money from the school district’s operating budget into the desegregation capital budget, a budget that the state board says can only be used to build new schools in the unlikely event that the county school districts suddenly pull out of the interdistrict transfer program and send all the city residents in their schools packing back to the city. The state board of education and the Missouri Attorney General have it in their power to waive payments into the desegregation capital fund. We think it is wrong that they do not do so.

School Closings

We believe that the state board of education’s demands that St. Louis Public Schools forego spending money it has on education and instead place it into a fund that the state hopes to takeover in 40 years is outrageous and immoral. We unequivocally oppose closing schools to bank money for the state.

We also note that the assumption shared by the state board of education and the SAB that smaller schools are more expensive to operate than larger schools is an assumption that is not supported by research. Studies by researchers at Brown University and the University of Wisconsin, for example, have shown that small schools are not any more expensive to operate than large schools. The key is not how large a school is, but how it is managed.

Instead of closing neighborhood schools, the SAB could have looked at changing the way they are managed to save money. One suggestion to emerge from neighborhood meetings is to have the principal and literacy coach in small schools teach classes, in other words, make the administrative positions part time administrative and part time teaching positions. Yes, that would have required getting the teachers’ and administrators’ unions to agree to changes in their contracts. More significantly, perhaps, it would have required that district administrators – education officers, assistant superintendents, and the superintendent – give up their practice of routinely pulling principals out of schools for daylong meetings. They would have had to think more carefully about when they really needed to pull a principal out of school and plan better in order to use principals’ time out of school more efficiently.

The SAB’s failure to consider alternative management structures for small schools suggests that they are more concerned with preserving management the way it is than with serving children.

The financial talk surrounding this round of school closings masks a prejudiced belief that city school children do not deserve the same small class sizes enjoyed by children in the county. Elaborate arguments about school capacity and utilization are all about one thing: making sure that when city public school children attend school they are in the largest classes possible. We believe that is wrong and we urge the state board of education and the attorney general to do the right thing and forgive payments to the desegregation capital fund.

Forgiving payments the desegregation capital fund would not do away with all of the school district’s financial woes – the state’s charter school policy of having more and more schools fight for pieces of the same fixed financial pie ensures that the city school district will continue to face strong financial pressures – but it would give the school district breathing space to consider alternatives. A year ago, the St. Louis Board of Education asked staff to estimate the cost of reducing class sizes to the state’s “desirable” level. That estimate could have served as the basis for a discussion with legislators and the community about funding. Under the weight of the campaign by the state education commissioner, Kent King, to remove the school district’s accreditation and the remove the elected school board, district staff never prepared or presented that estimate. The SAB never requested it. Forgiving payments to the capital fund could give the SAB time to repair its negligence, if it so desired.

School Violence

The decision to return to the classroom students, who were suspended earlier this year for such felonious offenses as making death threats to staff or getting caught with weapons or drugs at school, is another example of the SAB sacrificing students in order to put a few more bucks in the bank. Such students should have been removed from the population they threatened and put in a program where they can get the concentrated services to change their behavior and progress academically. We emphasize that the issue is one of providing students the services they need, not one of punishment. The decision not to provide such services is really a decision about money that hurts everyone in the school. We strongly urge the SAB to reconsider its decision to deny alternative education services to violent students.

Superintendent

Less than one year ago, the state board of education declared that it had to replace the elected school board with an appointed board in order to stop “the revolving door” of superintendents in the school district. They said an appointed board was necessary to bring stability to the superintendent’s office. Now, one week after the state-appointed CEO is confirmed in his position, he is spinning that door again, and for no good reason. The statement from the SAB that everything was good with the superintendent, but they wanted a change, apparently simply for the sake of change, is insufficient reason for again creating uproar and instability in St. Louis Public Schools.

We believe the SAB owes the public an explanation for their precipitous decision to fire Diana Bourisaw.

In addition to approving the above statement tonight, the school board also voted to appeal the recent court decision which upheld the state takeover of the district.

St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Diana Bourisaw will hold a news conference today at 1 p.m. to address the district’s new superintendent search. A few moments ago, she released this statement:

Good morning,

By now you have heard that the SAB will be conducting a superintendent search. I respect their decision and have chosen not to apply for the position. While I initially accepted this position as an interim superintendent, I have grown to love this district – the children, family, staff and community. I have learned from the quality, commitment and care that is given by staff, and to love the beautiful souls of our children.

During these next few months I assure you that I will remain focused on the needs of the district and our children. I will continue to support you in your efforts to improve teaching and learning for our students. You deserve no less.

Diana M. Bourisaw, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools

The news conference will be held in Room 108 at Central Office, 801 N. 11th Street.