If anyone can explain this weird decision about St. Louis schools, please help me out. I posted about it earlier today.
St. Louis Public Radio reported:
An opinion affecting funding for city schools came out of Missouri’s 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday. It is related to the decades-old school desegregation case, Liddell v. Board of Education.
The court was considering whether sales tax revenue meant for desegregation programs in St. Louis Public Schools should continue to go to charter schools. Plaintiffs had argued that more than $80 million in revenue had been improperly diverted to charters.
The court found charter schools are entitled to that money. This upholds a federal judge’s earlier decision. Because the charters are already receiving the funding, this won’t change anything.
The court also found that charter schools are not required to provide desegregation programs with this funding. St. Louis Public Schools is supposed to use the money for those programs, which can include magnet schools, all-day kindergarten and summer school.
Charter school advocates are happy with the court’s opinion.
So the money is a special tax meant to promote desegregation. The public schools share the proceeds with charter schools. The public schools must use the money to promote desegregation. The charter schools are not required to spend the tax money to promote desegregation.
I don’t understand this decision. Do you?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
More American “Just Us.”
Thinking that, thanks to McConnell and Traitor Trump, the justice system has been seriously politized (McConnel for ALEC and the Federalists vs the Traitor for Trump), I was curious to learn who appointed those judges so I ran a series of Google searches:
How many judges are on the 8th Circuit Court of appeals?
It hears appeals from all of the circuit courts within its jurisdiction and its rulings may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Eighth Circuit has 11 authorized judicial posts. The chief judge of the court is Lavenski Smith, who was appointed by President George W. Bush (R).
https://www.moed.uscourts.gov/
The next link reveals who the judges are on the 8th Circuit Court of appeals and the presidents that appointed them. Only one of the judges was appointed by a Democrat and that was Obama.
Four were appointed by Traitor Trump
Three by G.H.W Bush
Five by G. W. Bush
Three by Reagan
After learning that I wasn’t not surprised by the ruling. If that ruling is appealed to the U.S. Supreme court, maybe it will be overturned.
Too much about Missouri is bizarre these days.
On the political scale, yes, quite bizarre, but hey when one is brought up to believe in myths, absurdities and contradictions as most are taught via extian fundie extremism what can one expect?
Fortunately there is a lot in Missouri that is just fine, especially one of the world’s, yes, world’s, Conservation Department which was set up in the 30s so that the legislators can’t ever touch the dedicated funding which the people voted on, even voting to add to the conservation taxes over the years. I’ve been in state and federal parks lands around the country. . . not a one beats Missouri’s.
I absolutely agree! I look forward monthly to the Missouri Conservationist magazine, as well as the children’s Xplor magazine. Both are high quality publication that are free for Missouri residents. Hooray for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The one thing that I do understand is that the public schools side of the argument needs better lawyers.
The decision to continue giving funding away to charters was based on the Missouri Legislature’s dumb law requiring public schools to give money away. The part of the decision not to require charters to use desegregation fund to desegregate was based on a falsehood: “The Missouri Legislature, for its part, ratified the parties’ settlement agreement and created a charter-school option. Open to everyone, see id. §160.410.2, charter schools had no legacy of segregation and remained “independent” of local school boards, id. § 160.400.1”
Charters do have a legacy of segregation. Segregation academies are the legacy of charters. Resisting Brown v Board. Segregation is what charters are for, and segregate is what they do. Blindness to that fact is where the court went wrong.
And they’re not open to everyone either.
These court decisions keep getting more and more absurd.
Public schools should agree to pay the charter schools when charter schools share some of the money they received from all the Covid money that public schools were barred from receiving, but charter schools collected as private companies, even though they suffered no financial hardship. Sharing is always a one way street with charter schools.
I have said before and will repeat :
At the beginning of charter schools, they promised to cost less, get better results or close, be more accountable, take the kids who were failing in public schools. None of that is true now.
If anyone can explain…
What you think the wording
means, and how it should be
applied, only counts when
you’re in charge…
Missouri charter schools were created to offer a non-segregated alternative to public schools, so the courts view is that giving them the money fulfills the intent of the settlement agreement. (Even though the NAACP, who joined the original lawsuit, has called for a moratorium on charter schools due to an increase in segregation.) It’s quite absurd.
This decision dovetails nicely with other recent decisions by judges who seem to feel they are not curators of fairness but arbiters of divine wisdom. Their agenda is above the law. If the law happens to support their agenda, they vote it. If it does not they ignore it. If logic, extending from some part of the law exist, they lean on it (think Citizens United and the right of free speech). If there is no logic extending from the law, they cite bogus information, as the Texas court recently did in it abortion drug decision.
What’s not to understand? These judges are just following the will of a few people. They march is toward tyranny.
The absurdity at the heart of the abortion pill decision in Texas is the Judge’s belief that he knows more about science than the FDA. If his decision stands, expect a lawsuit to abolish COVID vaccines..and every other vaccine. The U.S. will become a public health disaster zone.
“Their agenda is above the law.”
I’d bet that for 90% of them that “above the law” is based on regressive xtian fundie faith beliefs.
It IS hard to understand. Maybe we need to know more about the judge. Is he a product of private schools? Who appointed him? Etc.