Both groups have filed legal documents in the past two weeks in Cole County Circuit Court, where a judge is deliberating over the charter suit. The St. Louis School Board wants charter schools to be declared unconstitutional. That would negate a recent state law that has allowed 15 of the experimental schools to open in Kansas City. In St. Louis, charter school organizers are hoping to open at least a half dozen schools for hundreds of students next year. Charter schools are public schools that are launched by parents or community groups and are free from local school board oversight and most state regulations.
Supporters say they promote innovation and foster competition among schools.
Detractors say they rob traditional public schools of students and, consequently, state money. The brief filed by the Missouri School Boards Association claims that the state's charter school law inappropriately channels state education dollars to schools that are not fully accountable to taxpayers and are not truly public schools. The Missouri Constitution bars the state from directing tax dollars to private schools. St. Louis Public Schools has made similar arguments in its suit filed this summer to keep the city's first charter school from opening. The school, now called the African-American Rite of Passage Institute, has since faced financial trouble but plans to open next fall.