St. Louis, MISSOURI

Can you spell C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N and media malfeasance?

New St. Louis School Superintendent.
November 3, 2008 - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Kelvin Adams, the new superintendent of St. Louis Schools, has begun evaluating the curriculum and filling three key posts in his administration, most notably that of chief academic officer.

The school district has some 25,000-students, "barely hanging onto its status as the largest school system in Missouri." Seven years ago, 42,000 students attended city schools. The district has already shuttered 25 buildings since 2003.

Adams was the director of human resources during a short stint with the St. Louis schools in 2006-07.
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TT - Not mentioned was that Adams is the seventh superintendent since 2003. (Kansas City beats that record due to a school board's fractious interference. Voters recently approved moving seven district schools out of the Kansas City district into another school district.)

Not mentioned either by the Post-Dispatch is that the St. Louis schools have been run since June 2007 by an appointed, three-person Special Administrative Board set up by the state of Missouri after it stripped the district of its accreditation for poor academic performance. After state takeover, the elected School Board in St. Louis refused to cede authority. They are now, for all intents and purposes just spectacles, but it is a role they relish.

Adams came from New Orleans where he served since July 2007 as chief of staff to Superintendent Paul G. Vallas. (Wikipedia entry for Vallas.)

New Orleans is another state-run school district. Taken over by the state after Katrina, the New Orleans Recovery School District operates 34 public schools in New Orleans and oversees 33 more independent charter schools. With 47 charter schools, New Orleans has the nation's highest percentage of charter schools, with close to 60 percent of its children in charter schools.

Previous TT entry on how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a cheerleading section for two of the most inept school districts in the country.

OTHER STATES
Black school districts in New Jersey under state control are Jersey City (since 1997) as well as Camden (since 2002), Patterson (1991) and Pleasantville (We call "Unpleasantville.") where " recent investigation by an independent law firm accused past and present school board members of violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act." Then there is Jonesboro, GA, the first school district decertified since 1969.

The obvious question is why is there no national attention on the widespread corruption and incompetence in black schools in New Jersey, New Orleans, and Missouri and elsewhere? Why is there so little coverage when in an October 2008 discussion with Condolezza Rice, she spoke about education.

"I think the state of education, K through 12 education in our country, and frankly for underprivileged kids, the appalling state of education is a national security issue.

You know, I’ve long been an educator and it breaks my heart that there could be very talented kids who might be the next Nobel Prize winner in the United States in chemistry or the next great composer in America, and they’ll never get discovered because they’re trapped in some public school that is just basically warehousing them. That makes me very, very sad.
But I’ll tell you, as Secretary of State, it makes me terrified.

Transcript here.