Deseg, Magnets and Charters

PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

Of the more than 32,000 students that attend St. Louis Public Schools, only slightly more than 4,000 of them are white. Despite whites making up only 14% of the district population, two out of every five seats in some of the city’s best schools — top-performing magnet schools — are reserved for white children. And because so few of their parents are choosing to send their kids to SLPS, many of those seats go unfilled, despite the fact that waiting lists of black students wanting to attend these good schools grow longer every year.

Yesterday, at a public meeting of parties in the Liddell v. The Board of Education case (the historic desegregation case which led to 15 years of court-ordered busing between city and suburban districts), teachers union president Mary Armstrong asked the parties if they would consider releasing those empty seats to black students whose families are desperate for better educational opportunities.

Armstrong said many of those families choose charter schools because they are turned away from SLPS magnets, costing the district millions of dollars every year.

In this exclusive video Armstrong mentions Mayor Francis Slay’s plan to aggressively expand the number of charter schools in the city, which will put further economic strain on the district. And attorney William L. Taylor, the lead lawyer in the desegregation case, asks Armstrong her position on pay-for-performance plans for teachers.

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• Central Visual and Performing Arts
• Cleveland NJROTC
• Gateway Institute of Technology
• Kennard Classical Junior Academy
• McKinley Classical Junior Academy
• McKinley Classical Leadership Academy
• Metro Academic and Classical High School
• Soldan International Studies

Applications to all other St. Louis magnet schools must be received by Monday, December 31.