Governance Reform and the St. louis Schools
Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick called on the State Board of Education and legislators to consider a new governance structure for St. Louis Public Schools on Thursday after he released the second part of an audit of the district’s operations.
Public school districts are governed by locally elected school boards, unless a district loses its accreditation. Then, a state-appointed board can be put in charge. A locally elected Board of Education regained control of SLPS in 2019 after a 12-year stint under state oversight.
“I believe this report highlights the need to have a serious conversation about the long-term governance structure of the district, and I’m encouraging the [Missouri] Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and if necessary the legislature, to explore options to ensure effective leadership for the district and the thousands of young people who attend these schools in the years to come,” Fitzpatrick said during a press conference.
“This is a district that’s in the midst of massive operational distress,” he said. “It’s crucial that the more than 16,000 kids who rely on these schools for their education have effective leadership in place to guide them through these turbulent times.”
Fitzpatrick, a Republican, is running for reelection in November. He helped launch the MO Scholars program in 2022, a voucher program that provides taxpayer dollars for families wishing to enroll their students in private schools. Proponents of public education have heavily criticized the program.
The State Board of Education voted in January to lower SLPS’ accreditation to provisional status. Fitzpatrick alluded to the fact that the district may lose its accreditation completely next year, which would put it on the path for some sort of state intervention.
He stopped shy of calling for a state takeover of the district and said he supports local and state elected officials weighing on what the oversight of SLPS could be, but said it was unsustainable for the district to move back and forth between state and local control as it has in the past.
