Affordable School Choices For City Parents

A St. Louis county judge recently ruled that the St. Louis Public School District did not have to pay the tuitions of several City students enrolled by their parents in the Clayton School District. I have not seen the ruling.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the judge said that he agreed with an interpretation by the Clayton district’s lawyer of a 1993 statute that the parents said required unaccredited districts to pay the tuitions of students whose parents choose to send them to schools in accredited districts. The newspaper says that the judge said he took into consideration “the fact that some city schools, like magnet schools, are considered accredited, and the effects of the voluntary desegregation program.” The newspaper also noted that the parents had enrolled their students in the Clayton district even before the St. Louis district lost its accreditation, which seems to me to weaken their argument.

This is a tough subject.

I strongly support every effort to provide quality public education in the City. That means I support a reformed St. Louis Public School District and great charter schools. And I know that there are kids enrolled in great public district and public charter schools in the City right now. But, I — like many City residents and would-like-to-be residents — no longer have any patience to wait for things to get much better for all students.

The parents’ lawyer says that he plans to appeal the case. I do not think the appeal will succeed, but I also think that there might be a more recent case that better tests the meaning of the 1993 statute.