Good ruling strikes down student transfers
A Missouri law permitting students to transfer out of unaccredited school districts was a hammer too lethal to be used. A St. Louis Circuit judge made the right decision by striking it down.
Judge David Lee Vincent III’s ruling gives some breathing room to the unaccredited Kansas City and St. Louis school districts and accredited neighboring districts. Allowing students to transfer at will, with the unaccredited districts picking up the bills, would have wreaked even more educational havoc in Missouri’s largest metropolitan areas.
The matter is not resolved, however. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said his office will appeal Vincent’s ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Koster’s job is to defend state law. But this particular law would do more harm than good.
The solution lies with the Missouri legislature, which could pass a bill clarifying the circumstances under which transfers should be permitted.
But, in an abject failure of leadership, the legislature shirked that responsibility last year and appears ready to do so again this session.
Transfers on any scale are not an antidote to failing schools. In Kansas City, they would stress outlying districts while further eviscerating the core area served by the Kansas City Public Schools.
Wiser prescriptions are urgently needed. That district’s failure to adequately educate children is a blight on our city and state.
Legislation allowing the state to intervene in the governance and administration of unaccredited school districts without the two-year waiting period currently required would be a good first step. Surely lawmakers can get that done before the session ends on May 18.
State Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro and the Board of Education must then have a serious discussion about the Kansas City district’s governance structure.
School board members themselves have proposed some positive changes, including reducing the size of the board and electing all members at-large, rather than by subdistricts. Those would have to be written into statute by the legislature.
Nicastro and the board of education must also assess whether Kansas City could be served better with a board selected by a different method, such as a panel of city leaders and educators.
The judge’s ruling on transfers removed a hammer, at least for now. Kansas City and state leaders must renew their search for the right tools to reverse the urban school district’s culture of dysfunction.
George Hunsucker
Northland
1 year agoHow can you libs cheer a ruling such as this? You have put these children into Hell holes you euphemistically call “schools”, don’t educate them, except of course sex ed, and then “graduate” those few remaining. Of course their “degree” means little and they can’t find jobs, but you have provided their “educators” with premium jobs and benefits and their union bosses dues to influence further elections.
This is truly a despicable editorial cheering the continued abuse of KC children. You should be ashamed of yourselves EB, but of course aren’t. How sad.
George Hunsucker
Northland
1 year agoAnd of course phil, the lawyer, thinks there is absolutely nothing wrong with our system for appointing judges. This is just another case of a dumb butt judge making an even dumber butt decision…. Give me citizen elected judges!!!!
Erin Fitzgerald
1 year agoWow, I’m a liberal and I thought we were in favor of letting kids transfer out of the district. Well, the nice thing about Missouri’s judges is that they aren’t political appointments, so I’m left with the idea the the judge had actual legal reasons for his ruling. On the other hand, the state has completely failed the kids with either a fix for this legislation, or guidance for Kansas City Schools. They are too interested in vouchers to pass good legislation.
Kent Mueller
1 year agoErin, I think we can all agree that there is no one solution. But, vouchers represent a very good part of a solution. Funding should be linked to the student, not the school. What could possibly be wrong with giving students and parents the freedom to attend the school of their choice? Our current system of tying students to a school, even after the school has failed, is incredibly damaging to the student.
George Hunsucker
Northland
1 year agoBut our courrent system gives jobs to the incompetents Kent, and dues to their unions. That is what public education in America is all about today. You are very smart and blessed to have gotten your children out of the Hell holes libs continue to foster.