Trouble for Jay Nixon?

[proud2BlibKansan]

The KC School District has gone to court asking the state to keep its funding obligation to the schools in KC. It all stems from the deseg case (bet ya thought that was over, eh?). And it involves charter school funding. That deseg case is a cancer on Jay Nixon as far as support in KC is concerned.

Oh I hate Matt Blunt and I will support Nixon but damn! this couldn't be happening at a worse time, IMO. Hopefully it will all be settled before November 2008.

I don't see any articles online. I did see an item on Channel 9 last night. I will keep looking for links and post what I find.

[nickinSTL]

1. isn't there anyone better than Nixon?

I'm not at all happy about Nixon being the Dem candidate vs. Blunt.

I mean, anyone short of Hitler would be better than Blunt, but can't we find anyone better than Nixon?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Well, I liked Claire

but she is probably the best bet against Talent.

This is a bummer about the KC Schools. Just a great big giant bummer. :grr:

[evlbstrd]

3. What exactly was Nixon proposing re: charters?

evlspwn had opening night last night, and I missed this.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. He is not proposing anything.

The district is asking for $$$ the state was court ordered to provide, and is claiming the state has been sending this $$$ to charter schools instead.

I think this is partly in response to the plan to remove the Independence schools from the KCSD. The district is looking to get every penny they can get their hands on. If they lose the Independence schools, the financial loss would be rather significant.

[evlbstrd]

7. Well, now I'm confused.

Your OP mentioned charters and Jay Nixon. I can't blame the district for trying to get what the court ordered. Is Nixon saying they got it? That money sent to charters counts toward the court ordered money? Huh?

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I think that is what is going on.

The district is claiming the state is sending the $$ to the charters.

[evlbstrd]

9. Okay, that's a little clearer.

Thanks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Article in today's Star:

Suit revisits desegregation case
Dispute centers on charter school funding
By JOE ROBERTSON
The Kansas City Star

State authorities siphoning money from the Kansas City School District can’t say they weren’t warned.

In taking steps over the last two years to shift millions of state dollars to charter schools, the state authorities were messing with federal desegregation litigation that has loomed over the community for nearly three decades, district lawyers said.

Now Kansas City schools have gone back to federal court to try to stem a series of legislative and legal defeats in state venues that would redirect more money to charter schools.

“You don’t go lightly into that night,” Kansas City school board President David Smith said of reopening the desegregation case. “No one wants to see that relived.”

But the school district, he said, had little choice.

more . . .

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/13947369.htm

[MoJoWorkin]

4. Sorry to disagree with you here, but the ONLY time Nixon is

in the local news, and that is practically every day, is when he is appearing to do something FOR the public like the no-call lists, warning of scams (usually the old folks), etc. It is perception, and down here in SW Mo, I actually think he will do better than expected--and this is Blunt's home turf.

Also, I am not at all happy with Claire. Yes, I will hold my nose and vote for her, as you will for Nixon; but I will never forgive her for adopting the RW false talking points re Holden(especially concerning education), nor her wavering on a woman's right to chose toward the end of her campaign, for political gain. I know Holden did NOT deserve what the party did to him. Claire shouldn't have run the nasty campaign against him that she did, as it turned off democrats like me,
I started out at age 15 walking door-to-door for J F Kennedy, and I have been a committeewoman in the 1970's and 2000(in between that time I worked for the state of MO, and was not allowed to be on committee.) I walked my legs off for Democrats over the years. I finally had a belly full of watching the backstabbing that went on in the old-line party power structure.
I had high hopes that Dean could change all that. However, I see with the hatchet job done on Hackett by the status-quo old-line powers that be, not much has.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. You aren't from KC

The state was found liable for the segregated schools in KC. The state was ordered to pay to integrate the schools and to pay for improvements and staffing to bring the KC schools up to par with the surrounding districts. Basically, the state refused to abide by numerous court orders and instead fought the district tooth and nail for years. Nixon, as the AG, led the charge. Meanwhile, our kids in KC got screwed while the grownups fought it out. The rest of the state decided that KC was 'stealing' education dollars from the other districts in the state (the fact that the $$$ was court ordered and the state refused to pay was ignored for YEARS). To this day, there is deep resentment in many school districts across the state for both KC and St. Louis and many Missourians still believe that the city schools stole money from the rest of the schools in the state. That whole court ordered part of the story always gets left out.

It got so bad back in the 80s that the local labor council wouldn't endorse Nixon - IIRC, there was more than one election involved. It was the first time EVER in its 50 year history that the KC teachers union did not endorse a candidate in the state AG race.

It's a nasty nasty story and Nixon was the lead attorney for the state throughout the court case. His name was mud here in KC for a looooong time. He made many negative comments about KC schools, most of which were not true and just served to slander the school district. Now, just as it seemed all that was behind us, the KC school district takes the state back to court for (once again!) not abiding by a court order.

As for Claire, Holden is a nice man but was a lousy governor. I am not sure anyone could have successfully fought the RW attack on Holden from elected officials in Jeff City. But I thought Claire was LOTS tougher than Holden and we need tough these days. As for the education issues addressed during the campaign, I do follow those pretty carefully and agreed with Claire's take.

I believe the important point in all of this is that the real enemy here is the Republican party. I just hate to see all this crap from 20+ years ago dragged out once again.

The good news is that Matt Blunt is despised here and I honestly can't see him beating anyone, even Nixon.

[cornermouse]

10. I'm not sure this is the same time period as Nixon, but I

clearly remember seeing newspaper stories about the K.C. schools having indoor swimming pools, computers for every student in the classrooms, and other (for us at least) "luxury" items at a time when our schools were struggling to have enough books for their students and were lucky if they had 1 computer for a classroom of 25 to 30 students. That's why the anger and resentment toward K.C. and St. Louis in the rest of the state.

That said, I agree this is probably a tactic of Blunt and the republican party. I'm sure we can expect much more to come. Dirty tactics are all the repubs have and really its all they seem to know.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. The KC schools got NOTHING for over 30 years

No new books, no new materials, no decent salary increases for teachers. Buildings disintegrated. Facilities were not maintained. Making up for lost time is expensive.

A federal court judge oversaw and approved EVERYTHING that was funded via the deseg case. He found the state liable, he ordered the remedy. The state fought it. The US supreme court ruled in favor of the district and the plaintiffs. Yet the state still fights it. It is way past time for the state of MO to abide by the court order.

I don't know whether this is a partisan effort or not. We saw this deseg case through several different governors, both Dem and Repub. The state fought it tooth and nail regardless of who was in the gov's office.

[cornermouse]

12. Whoa there. I'm just telling you what I remember reading in the paper

and what I was seeing at that time in the local not in K.C. schools. That's why people were and probably still are angry at the K.C. school district.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. And I am trying to tell the WHOLE story

You know - the one the paper doesn't tell you? I understand WHY the rest of the state is still angry at the KC schools. They need to be angry at the state - for ignoring the court order.

The case is settled. The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the KC school district. The state of MO is the bad guy here, not the school district.

[kweerwolf]

15. Nixon is a bigot who would be more at home in the GOP

There is absolutely no way I would vote for him. If he runs against "Skippy" Blunt I don't see it as a choice of the lesser of two evils since both choices are equally evil. I'll probably have to hold my nose and vote Green in that race ... and you can be damn sure I will make every effort to stir up anti-Nixon sentiment here in Kansas City.