Four Missourians with expertise in public education filed a lawsuit against Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander and Missouri State Auditor Thomas Schweich last week. The lawsuit challenges the ballot and fiscal summary of what they call “billionaire extremist Rex Sinquefield’s latest attempt to amend the Missouri Constitution.”
Sinquefield created controversy last year when discussing an education-related ballot initiative, claiming the Ku Klux Klan designed the public school system to ruin the lives of African-American children. Sinquefield, who must manage money better than he judges the written word, was suckered in by a newspaper parody that he took to be a statement of factual history.
In April, a bipartisan majority in the Republican-dominated Missouri House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a bill (HB 631) similar to Sinquefield’s initiative by a 55-102 vote. Horse trading (not to mention vote buying) continues in Jefferson City to come up with a compromise version of the education bill before the session ends May 17.
Filed in the circuit court of Cole County, the lawsuit charges that the ballot summary is unfair and likely to deceive voters because it fails to mention that the constitutional amendment would permit school districts to fire or cut the pay of public school teachers and administrators without cause or due process, and it would create a burdensome “one-size-fits all” evaluation system mandating additional standardized testing of students.
The suit also charges that the fiscal note fails to include financial analyses provided by local school districts stating Sinquefield’s amendment would cost schools millions of dollars in the first year with substantial ongoing costs.
Paul T. Morris, Dana Ruhl, Kathy Steinhoff and Darryl Johnson (Missouri Teacher of the Year 2006-2007 who is being inducted into the National Teacher Hall of Fame next month) are filing the suit in their private capacity as Missouri citizens.
“Sinquefield’s initiative removes local control of how school districts evaluate teachers. It financially punishes districts for using proven locally developed evaluations,” says Morris, a retired teacher and second term school board president in the Ferguson-Florissant School District.
“In Ferguson-Florissant, the board, administration and teachers have developed our evaluations. They are time-tested and proven. From my perspective as a school board member, maintaining local control is very important. More high-stakes testing doesn’t lead to accountability, it wastes children’s valuable classroom time on test taking instead of learning. It’s critical the ballot language accurately reflects the harm this ballot initiative creates.”
Ruhl, business manager of Hannibal Public School District, says, “This initiative would change the Missouri Constitution by removing local control of how teachers are compensated or laid off. It creates an unfunded mandate that costs schools millions of dollars without educating a single child. It’s important the ballot summary accurately reflects the costs of this initiative and the jeopardy to school district’s funding for failing to comply with unproven top-down mandates.”
Steinhoff, a National Board-certified teacher in Columbia and winner of the Horace Mann Teaching Excellence Award, says, “One-size-fits-all testing approaches are not good for kids and cost our schools millions. It is time to stand up to special interest groups who are trying to destroy public education. Allowing teachers to be fired without cause takes away all their rights to due process and creates chaos in the schools. Parents have the right to know the real impact of Sinquefield’s plan, and that should be included in the language on the ballot.”
Transparency in budgeting
Last week, the new Ways and Means Committee Chairman Alderman Terry Kennedy and President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed announced a new hearing schedule which will allow for more citizen input and participation in the city’s budgeting process.
For the first time in several years, the Ways and Means Committee will hold evening meetings in order to provide an opportunity for citizens to receive information on the proposed new city budget for 2013-14 and to make public comment.
The first public meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14 and will review the city’s budget process and give citizens an overview of the proposed new budget. The second public meeting held 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15 and will allow citizens the opportunity to make public comment and suggest ideas. Both hearings will be held in the Kennedy Hearing Room (Room 208) on the second floor of City Hall 1200 Market St.
“For years Ways and Means Committee meetings related to the city budget review process have been held at times that made it a little difficult for working people to attend,” said Kennedy. “With this new hearing schedule, we are hoping to make the process more inviting and conducive to taxpayer participation.”
Reed said, “The budget is, literally, the most important single piece of legislation that the board deals with every year. It sets our city’s spending priorities, and the decisions we make impact every city resident. The new schedule will open up our budgeting process to greater citizen involvement and allow citizens a greater voice in setting our priorities.”
An overview of the budget may be found online on the city’s website, stlouis-mo.gov/, under the Budget Division. Written copies of the general overview of the budget will also be available at the Board of Aldermen on Monday, May 13 until Friday, May 17.
Citizens may provide written comments to the Ways and Means Committee Chair at the May 14 meeting or send comments to the committee through the city website. Verbal public comments will be limited to five minutes or less for the May 15 meeting. There will not be public testimony at the May 14 committee meeting.
Communications breakdown
Reed also come out against the Mayor Francis G. Slay’s unexpected call to close the city Communications Department (including City TV) in response to the loss of a federal public safety grant. Reed pointed out that there would be other ways to plug the shortfall in public safety funds and keep cops on the beat.
“For many of our older citizens, the city’s cable channel is their primary way of knowing what’s going on in our city’s government, which is a vital public service,” Reed said.
Reed also said closing the Communications Department “would work directly against increasing transparency in government,” which Slay somewhat laughably (given his track record for sleight of hand) included in his goals for his fourth term.
When outlining his goals, Slay acknowledged that he needed the support of Reed or Comptroller Darlene Green to accomplish much of anything, so Reed only needs the support of exactly one other person – the comptroller – to stymie Slay on his gambit to close down City TV and the rest of the Communications Department.
Appointed – and not
First Charlotte, N.C. beat out St. Louis for the Democratic National Convention. And now its mayor beat ours to a federal appointment. Last week President Obama nominated Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx as U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Current Secretary Ray LaHood is stepping down. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Foxx would join U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as the only African American currently serving in Obama’s cabinet.
As for Slay, he has been pining for a federal appointment to a judgeship as long as he has been mayor. He has broken the heart of many mayoral hopefuls waiting in line behind him, as it’s perennially rumored that “Francis won’t even finish this next term” because that federal appointment for him is perennially pending … and never happening.
Axelrod in STL
David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, will be in St. Louis to discuss the intersection of Transformational Branding and Politics on at noon Friday, May 10 at the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology. Axelrod will talk with Obama media consultant Clifford Franklin of FUSE Advertising, facilitated by Benjamin Akande, Dean of the School of Business & Technology at Webster University. The talk will be held in the Community Music School at Webster University (535 Garden Ave.).
