Here is a first for this blog: Governor Jay Nixon joins the honor roll for his courage in promising to veto a voucher bill passed by the State Legislature.
The State Senate has enough votes to override his veto, but the House does not.
Governor Jay Nixon recognizes that the state has an obligation to provide quality public education for every child. It must meet that obligation by providing every school with the resources and staff it needs, not by sending public funds to private schools.
Governor Nixon may also be aware of the overwhelming research showing that private schools do not get better results than public schools when they enroll the same children.
The bottom line is that Governor Nixon bravely stood up for the principle that the public has an obligation to support public education.
Now it his responsibility to fight for adequate funding and oversight to improve schools that are struggling. In most cases, the schools need more help for children and families that are in need, not just academic programs. The most reliable predictor of low test scores is poverty. Missouri, like other states, must avoid the pursuit of illusory quick fixes. Vouchers don’t “work” better than public schools. Missouri must improve its public school system for all.
Thanks to Governor Jay Nixon for protecting one of the basic democratic institutions that made our country great.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If I remember correctly, poster Joanna Best has some experience with urban public schools in Missouri. Perhaps she could post a little about the situation there.
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Could it be that folks are finally paying attention to research? Gerald Bracey is smiling!
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🙂
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Vouchers and charter schools are bad public policy…Poisons the tree, but that’s the plan.
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Here are a few districts that are unaccredited or provisionally accredited in Missouri, including St. Louis (provisional) and Kansas City (unaccredited). But the situation that prompted this legislation involves the Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts. Both are unaccredited and in St. Louis County (which is not part of the City of St. Louis. Last summer, a lawsuit was finally decided by the state Supreme Court that cleared the way for a ten year old law to go into effect. It allows students from unaccredited districts to attend accredited districts, and charges the home (unaccredited) districts for tuition and transportation costs. (I’m simplifying the issue, but these are the most relevant parts.) Normandy and Riverview Gardens were stuck with huge bills, much to the detriment of their own students. Teachers and staff were laid off mid-year. Normandy district went bankrupt within months, but no money was forthcoming from the state until that happened, and the state took over the district. Riverview Gardens is still solvent, but certainly struggling financially. The districts that received students from those districts had to scramble at the beginning of the school year because they didn’t expect to get those students, and they have no right to refuse the students. [I worked in one of the designated receiving districts.] the bill that passed the legislature didn’t pass until the end of the session. Right now! neither the sending or receiving districts, students, or parents know what will happen next year–whether more students can transfer out, whether those who did transfer can stay, or will they be forced to return to their home schools, etc. So master schedules, staffing, planning for courses, transportation, fall sports, etc. is once again highly uncertain.
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And all of that follow decades of voluntary desegregation where a family could choose to send their child to a country school from the city or to the city from the country. Tens of thousands went from the city to the county -full transportation and per pupil covered. Expensive but tens of thousands of graduates (not all success stories and achievement gap persisted but much more success than if students had remained).
Then the “unaccredited” law kicked in and then caught them by surprise with the districts noted above – but no plan! They scrambled last summer and will again have to deal with funding.
HOWEVER – if there’s a law proposal about anything in MO, many will use it as a way to get vouchers into schools. And, they did again – parochial and private.
They will figure this out and kids will go to school – the Governor stood on PRINCIPLE of public education.
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Normandy would not have gone bankrupt if they had not lost their accreditation in 2012. The state merged Normandy with a district, Wellston, which they admitted: we took it over, we failed, we want you to absorb their students. That was in 2110. The state promised Normandy to not reevaluate their accreditation for three years. They broke that promise, and took away their accreditation in only 2 years, and simultaneously, upped st. Louis public schools….which is run by a state appointed board…..to protect them from the consequences of the transfer law….it applies if they are unaccredited, but not if they are provisionally accredited. The state took over Normandy’s finances earlier this year, and a lawsuit about how they have been treated, including civil rights equal protection factors, and violation of financial laws of Missouri has been blocked by the state…..they refuse to allow money to file the case. State Commissioner Chris Nicastro is a racist bully, in my opinion……she has a grand design, not unlike that of Michigan. A state run school district of underperforming districts like Normandy and Riverview Gardens, and a few more dominoes which will fall. I am not sure about the KC schools, but I assume they will be part of it. It is my belief that the St. Louis schools, counted on to be supportive of the state, is nervous about this…..they are planning to turn over five schools to non profiteers, as yet unnamed……and they have to be wondering if they are targeted for being used by Nicastro. This story was in the American, and also in the Post dispatch and the beacon, (remnants of the former PD)….2010: http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/article_ab0f2eb3-7be9-526b-8f0c-785b997ca432.html
2012….the superintendent left after this…..just outright lies….the head of the state board changed the subject when asked about the three year promise…..http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/article_37379488-02c0-11e2-95b4-0019bb2963f4.html
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Far and away…..the best source regarding the history of abuse from privatization forces in Missouri is Peter Downs….recently he was a columnist in the wall street journal……he gave a revealing review about waiting for superman and has a book which has a title that reveals what it is all about……http://books.google.com/books/about/Schoolhouse_Shams.html?id=cmiYWCp_cnsC https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/17592/superman_runs_a_con just for good measure….before he was elected, (HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT TO SOME POWERFUL PEOPLE)….he successfully made the case that st. Louis teachers should not be sent to scientology workshops.
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“the public has an obligation to support public education.” I disagree with this completely. If public education is not adequately helping our children, we have no obligation to support it. When public education is not serving our children well, it seems ridiculous to just pump more money into the failing system. Promising to veto a voucher bill passed by the State Legislature is Governor Nixon’s way of imposing his democratic principles on the people of Missouri.
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