UPDATED to include response from 50度灰视频 Public Schools.
ST. LOUIS 鈥 For nearly two months, parents have stood on the sidelines as 50度灰视频 Public Schools, the NAACP and others have pushed litigation that threatens the survival of 35 charter schools in the city.
On Monday, charter school parents in the legal process. They鈥檙e asking a federal judge to stop the legal action from moving forward.
Ken Ross Jr. and LeDiva Pierce filed a motion in U.S. District Court asking a judge to allow them and other parents to join the plaintiffs in the of the 17-year-old desegregation settlement agreement. And they also ask the judge to dismiss the district鈥檚 motion to enforce the agreement.
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That agreement states that a sales tax that city voters approved in 1999 was to be used exclusively on programs that offset the negative impact segregation had on African-American students. Those programs included magnet schools, preschool and busing children to predominately white schools in the suburbs. But for 10 years, the state also has used revenue from this tax to calculate how much money to withhold from the district and send to charter schools. The district is asking for the practice to stop, and requesting reimbursement for more than $42 million that has been diverted from the district since 2006.
About 10,500 city children attend charter schools. Most of those schools could go bankrupt if the schools had to repay the full amount.
鈥淚f the charter schools have to close, that would be devastating to a lot of families,鈥 said Ross, whose 11-year-old son left a district elementary school as a second-grader for Confluence Academy Old North. The boy has autism and is thriving as a sixth-grader there, Ross said.
Pierce has three children in charter schools 鈥 one at KIPP Inspire Academy and two at North Side Community School. In an affidavit, Pierce said she did not believe her children would get an adequate education if they went to district schools.
鈥淚 was hoping SLPS would do the right thing and drop the lawsuit,鈥 Pierce said in an issued statement. 鈥淚n case they don鈥檛, I want to make sure charter school parents and kids have a voice in the matter.鈥
50度灰视频 Public Schools isn鈥檛 the only plaintiff involved. The players also include the NAACP, the U.S. Justice Department and the Liddell plaintiffs. Minnie Liddell is the parent whose lawsuit against the school district on behalf of her son in 1972 led to a desegregation program between city and county school districts.
By 1999, the parties involved wanted court-ordered desegregation to end and struck the revised settlement agreement. City voters approved the sales tax to finance programs that the state had been paying for. The agreement was reached between the plaintiffs and the state of Missouri.
Plaintiffs and school district officials have said their fight is against the state, not the charter schools.
鈥淭he Special Administrative Board filed litigation against the State of Missouri joining with the Liddell and the NAACP/Caldwell plaintiffs to file a motion to enforce the terms of the 1999 Desegregation Settlement Agreement," says a district-issued statement released Wednesday. "The motion seeks to honor both the letter and the spirit of the Agreement, including the will of the voters of 50度灰视频 who approved the Desegregation Tax be unconditionally assigned to 50度灰视频 Public Schools to remediate the effects of segregation."
School district officials first brought the issue to the state's attention in 2008.聽
"We have a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers in our district who fund our school, and the State鈥檚 inaction has deprived students in 50度灰视频 Public Schools of significant funding to improve our programs, staff and facilities and address the impact of segregation in our city," the district's statement says.
In their motion, charter school parents argue that the desegregation agreement includes all children in the city, not just those attending district schools. Charter schools hadn鈥檛 opened in 50度灰视频 when the 1999 agreement was reached, though the Legislature had passed a bill allowing them.
The sales tax was 鈥渋ntended to provide funds for all students at public schools in 50度灰视频, not to create a windfall鈥 for the district, the charter parents鈥 motion states.