Green Says KC School District on The Rise, Will Challenger Charter Schools for Students September 30, 2014

Kansas City school Superintendent said Monday the trouble school district is “on the rise”.
Green used charts, pictures and occasionally sarcasm to makes his points in his ‘State of the School District’ speech.
Green says the 2015 goal for the district is to regain full accreditation and achieve a district-wide score of 110 of a possible 140 point on the state achievement tests.
In 2014 the Kansas City district regained provisional accreditation and receive 92 points on the state test.
Green also said it was time to launch new programs in the district.
One of them is aimed at competing with charter schools within the district for students.
Enrollment has dropped steadily for most of the last decade because of turmoil in the district.
Green says, “We’re not going to sit back and let people keep taking out kids”.
“We’re going to make choice hard,’ Green said.
“We’re not going to sit back and let certain entities sell our parents a bill of goods that that is (charter schools) a better situation, when you look the numbers, it’s not better.”
At one point during green’s speech, his slide show offered three pictures all on the screen at the same time. One was a picture of former Superintendent John Covington, who left the district suddenly, creating the opening for Green; a second picture was of retiring Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro and a third picture was a full school bus.
The images were on the screen as Green talked about outside turmoil and the threat of student transfers disrupting the district.

Failing Schools Student School Transfer Case at Missouri Supreme Court Today March 5, 2013

Post-Dispatch:
A far-reaching school transfer law , that could affect the unaccredited Kansas City, Missouri school district hat has been mired in court for six years will get a hearing at the Missouri Supreme Court today.
The law says that children in unaccredited school districts have the right to transfer to better, neighboring districts, at the expense of their home districts.
The case has already made one trip to the Supreme Court. It used to be known as Turner vs. Clayton, after original plaintiff Jane Turner.
In the Turner decision, the high court upheld the law in July 2010 but sent the case back to the circuit court for further proceedings. That resulted in Vincent’s decision dealing with the Hancock Amendment.
St. Louis County Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III ruled last May that the law was unconstitutional and unenforceable.
St. Louis parent Gina Breitenfeld appealed the decision.
Breitenfeld – and the state attorney general’s office, which is defending the law – contend that after St. Louis Public Schools lost its accreditation in 2007, the city district was required to cover tuition costs for Breitenfeld’s two children, who attend public schools in the Clayton School District.
At the trial last spring, Vincent heard testimony predicting that if the law were upheld, thousands of St. Louis children would transfer to county schools, bankrupting the city district and dramatically raising costs for suburban districts.
Vincent ruled that the law violates the Hancock Amendment of the Missouri Constitution, which prevents the state from creating unfunded mandates.
In its brief, the state argues that paying tuition under the transfer law is not a new activity or service because the city district has always been required to educate students who live in the city.
Since St. Louis schools regained provisional accreditation last fall, the state adds that the transfer law no longer applies to the Breitenfelds’ situation, except as it concerns past tuition.
Legislators are watching the case closely. For years, school choice advocates have used the law as leverage, refusing to give suburban districts the authority to decide how many slots to offer city transfer students unless the Legislature also approved other options, such as tax credit-supported private school scholarships.