Missouri's Schools Suffer under Blunt and Nolte

Parents of Missouri school kids have known it for a long time, but now even President Bush recognizes that Missouri's schools have been back sliding under the Blunt Administration.

All the papers in the State have reported that Bush's Department of Education determined that "Missouri has demanded too little of its schools and reprimanded their shortcomings too slowly." Zollie Stevenson, chief of federal Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs, and leader of the team that reviewed Missouri says "The state needs to be more proactive — actually going out and monitoring." The KC Star reports Missouri could lose major school funding dollars.

Not only are our schools not performing, but they underfunded. Missouri legislators, like Rep. Jerry Nolte (R) in Gladstone, did not attempt to 1) increase funding or 2) make a more equitable funding formula. Half the school districts have sued the state for underfunding. Regardless of the outcome of the suit, its a bad thing for half the school districts to know they are underfunded. What does Nolte due to improve our schools? He co-sponsored a HJR1 that would strip Courts of the power to determine under the Missouri Constitution if schools are adequately funded. Nolte sure doesn't want anyone telling him to take care of Gladstone school kids.

So Bush's Department of Education gives our schools a F, half the school districts have to sue the state because they are underfunded and Nolte's solution is to beat up on the Courts. Maybe the solution is to get rid of Representative Nolte and Gov. Matt Blunt. The solution is to elect Terry Stone and Jay Nixon.