Sunday’s Commentary page is devoted entirely to the issue of charter schools, particularly whether they have the potential to improve the education of children in the St. Louis Public Schools district. The material grew out of a recent meeting of the Post-Dispatch Community Advisory Board, which included presentations on the issue from several perspectives, small working groups and an effort to identify points of consensus.

Here are links to all five pieces on the page. We encourage you to read them and then post a comment with your thoughts on the subject:

• Overview by Gilbert Bailon, Editor of the Editorial Page
• The Community Advisory Board: ideas for action
• “A model for improving public schools,” by Robbyn Wahby, special assistant for education to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay
• “Important questions still need anaswers,” by Mary Armstrong, president of St. Louis Local 420 of the American Federation of Teachers
• “Bridging the public/private divide,” by Kathleen Sullivan Brown, associate professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis