The SLPS has many fine schools as well as the top performing high school in the state. Many students certainly need help, no disputing that, but the district is not universally failing despite political comment to the contrary.

By contrast, not one existing charter school in the entire city has met their Annual Yearly Performance (AYP) goal. Not one. Why should I trust my child to “potential” when the current state of affairs makes clear that charter schools are not better, and are often worse, than traditional public schools?

It is a shame that parents are being frightened into believing hype in order to benefit for-profit charter school companies instead of being given the truth about their performance. I invite any parent who would like a true, parent’s eye view of the potential within SLPS to contact me at the District office. I and many other parents I know are happy to talk to you and show you the schools our children attend, and of which we are proud.

Miss Wessling, like so many in the SLPS, has her head in the sand. The fact is, the SLPS failed every single MAP standard, and met only two of the seven MSIP standards. When people consider moving to the city, there are two things which keep them away: crime, and the city schools. Miss Wessling may be proud of the city schools, but they are the shame of the rest of the community. That she can be proud of such a train wreck really makes me wonder …

Ms. Wessling fails to tell us that she was a member of the now removed school board… the one that oversaw the failure and state takeover of the SLPS.

Something to be proud of I’m sure

The question presented to us as a community and a society is whether we are willing to cede public control of education to private organizations and corporations. Public schools are subject to the political process and laws enforced by the state and the courts. Private corporations are subject to few of these controls. I am not willing to give over a public duty to a corporation that can’t be voted out of office, that is not subject to political pressure, or that is not required to follow anti-discrimination laws. Private schools and charters are not required to provide special education services (currently, all special education services in St. Louis charters are farmed out to the SLPS), nor are they prevented from discriminating based upon race, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation. These controls do not exist. This is not simply a school performance issue; it is a question of removing education from the public realm.

central westender (post #4)

That is not the question to be asking… the question is how many more generations of children are we willing to fail to educate?

If the SLPS were a corporation, it would have already been driven out of business… not unlike failed businesses of the past. Hudson auto? Scruggs, Vandervoort and Barney?

Public schools in the City of St. Louis have failed… FAILED! Not a little bit bad, not as good as it needs to be, doesn’t need a fix FAILED!

Politics have caused the failure and it, SLPS, needs to be completely taken apart and if… if after it’s gone, we want to build anew… that’s fine.

at the risk of being accused of an ad hominem attack, tsquare is even more ridiculously wrong than usual, which is saying something; if there have been failures of the public schools, Ms Wessling had nothing to do with it; the takeover pretty much had nothing to do with those failings, but with the failing of the Slay dogs to maintain control of the schools; it was mainly their failings that were at issues; and Ms. Wessling doesnt have to identify herself as a member of the elected board, everyone knows that; her failure not identify hardly intentional, everyone knows; on her worst day she knows more about education than tsquare has known on all his good days put together; sorry, tsquare, as edith ann would say, it’s the truth.

When I was on the schoolboard, Vancouver administration officials came to stlouis to make a presentation how they dealt with charter schools, opening a school district school nearby and making it better.
Mayor Slay wants charter schools to give middle class families, mostly south, mostly white, an option in order to keep the tax base in the city.
Though he may think that’s best for the city, the disingenuity with which he approaches it is off-putting. It seems to me that to him the most hard students to educate can go to heck in a hand-basket is best for the city. That attitude is beneath contempt. His representatives to the school district and board were almost without exception incompetent, arrogant and mean-spirited and on their best day did more harm than good.
But charter schools are a reality.
When students leave public schools to go to charter, I’d like to see not all their money follow them immediately, but maybe gradually over 3 years to give the public schools to adjust because you cant reduce capital costs overnight.
Finally, we still have to find a way to educate those left behind in public schools. Zero tolerance any student not readying at grade level by third grade would be a good start.

“Zero tolerance any student not readying at grade level by third grade would be a good start.” “reading, not readying, of course; and some typing practice for early in the morning would help, too.”