Takeover of Kansas City Schools?

Takeover of Kansas City Schools?

These have been troubling times at Kansas City schools. Instability has been constant in the school district, and the district has seen superintendents change every year. In April last year, the elections to the district school board had just one contestant which is indicative of a serious and worrying lack of interest in the school's health.

Superintendents in Kansas City schools have been known to last for a maximum of 12 months in recent years, with fresh and expensive elections with their associated politics being conducted on a regular basis.

Superintendent Anthony Almato was dismissed after a few months in office. Incidents like this and the non participation in board elections have caused the citizens of KC to be up in arms against the state of affairs in the area schools.

All this turmoil in has had the expected result on the state of the students' educations standards. Kansas City business leaders and industry experts claim that the caliber of students who graduate from Kansas City Schools is on the same level as an elementary school student. They complain that the schools are not doing what one of their purposes should be - to produce young men and women who will have some chance of assimilating into the workforce. Far from producing such students, Kansas City schools over a period of neglect has let its standards slip into decline, and the economic repercussions are plain to see.

The public has generally kept away from the malaise in the district, believing that there isn't a lot that they could do to correct the problem. But the recent arrests at area schools including Superintendent Almato's unceremonious dismissal and the appalling line up of candidates for the board election has jolted the citizenry out of its reverie. Angry parents have become interested in the workings of the school board that is responsible for the education of 20,000 youngsters, many if who belong to minority classes.

There have been rumors that the Missouri state school board will take over the helm of affairs but as Reverend Stan Archie who is on the state board said, the Missouri boards is at present not interested in managing the affairs of Kansas City schools. Instead, the board says that it wishes to work with the city school district and the state's education department to identity the problem areas in the city's education system and work towards collaborative efforts to resolve the myriad problems in these schools.

This announcement couldn't come at a better time. Kansas City schools have hit an all time low in their history as far as their perception in the public eye is concerned, and having an established state board system assisting them, could help them purge themselves of the divisive politics that threaten to ruin the lives of thousands of the city's children.

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