By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 12:19 PM
From the elected school board of SLPS:Peter Downs, President of the St. Louis Board of Education, today expressed disappointment that Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan upheld the State's takeover of St. Louis Public Schools.
"We were all aware that Judge Callahan had a record of ruling against education for children in Missouri, but it was still hard not to hope that this time would be different," Downs said. "So, although this ruling was expected, it is still disappointing. This was never about us as board members, this was about fighting for better schools for city children."
Noting that most of the members of the present board were elected on promises to stop the demolition of public education that began in 2003, Downs said the state board of education took control of the district to continue the process of demolition.
"The reports from the state board of education, and the comments of top Republicans like Rod Jetton, made very clear that their chief goals for St. Louis were to close schools and cut spending for they wanted cheaper education, not better education. The state-appointed board's proposed school closings show that they are following that mandate," he said.
"In the coming weeks, we have to decide what are our best strategies for blocking continued cuts and fighting for quality education," he added.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which includes individuals and the St. Louis Board of Education, have 30 days in which to decide if they want to appeal the decision. Downs said he expects the school board will decide at its meeting on February 12 whether it will join an appeal of Callahan's decision. That meeting will be at Carr Lane Middle School, 1004 N. Jefferson Ave.
2 Comments:
Perhaps the best thing to come out of the takeover---is that, hopefully, some of the people well informed and intensely interested in education issues will have become aware of what a low-life, politically connected collection of shiiteheads serve on the state board of education---and how dangerous their potential for right-wing agenda mischief really is.
No matter what you think of Nixon, it is imperative to elect him and as many democrats to the legislature as possible in this importan november of 2008 to get these asssssholes back under control.
Thanks to jeff Smith for sinking the gambaro selection.
1/24/2008 12:45 PM
Questions left unanswered:
1. How are things going at 4300 Goodfellow, where the state board has opened a charter school by outsourcing the operation to a questionable corporation from Texas?
2. How is attendance on a daily basis at slps----over 175 days---not the easy for the lazy-assssed media to make hoopla about one day in August.
3.Any news other than "Veronica was kind of nutty" response from the media regarding the death of Tim Bacon? Again---lazy assssed media.
4. What will Joan Bray do regarding Sullivan now that Mission accomplished Blunt is a lame duck? If she does anything, will it be reported anywhere other than pubdef?
5. Does Bourisaw still have anything to do with running slps? Nice article on her in the pd a while back---but nothing much about running the schools---in fact---there is not much of anything regarding who and how the schools are being run.
1/24/2008 12:55 PM
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