Ashby Technical Writing, LLC

An Alternative to the St. Louis Desegration Program

In 1991 I worked for the Missouri House Republican Caucus to prepare the following report on the St. Louis School Desegregation Program. The report was based on the premise that busing was a necessary first step in the process of removing the vestiges of segregation, but that busing as a tool had accomplished all that it could accomplish. The report suggested that the voluntary inter-district transfer program should be ended, but that the state should maintain equivalent funding to be spent on economic and social improvement in the Northside, the predominantly African-American part of the City of St. Louis. I was hired to write the report by Jim Talent, then Missouri Representative and House Minority Leader (now Senator from Missouri). Sen. Talent didn’t necessarily agree with the approach I was suggesting, but to his credit believed that desegregation was an important enough issue that all credible options should be evaluated. As I was completing the report, Talent decided to run for the U.S. House, and began to focus his attention in that direction. The Missouri Republican Caucus circulated the paper in draft form internally, but did not formally release it.

Summary

This paper outlines an alternative to the court-ordered desegregation program in the City of St. Louis. It proposes ending the Voluntary Interdistrict Transfer (VIT) program and busing, and instead argues for refocusing on providing a better education for minority students in the City of St. Louis. It suggests that the VIT program will not be able to remove the vestiges of segregation, as required by a series of Supreme Court cases, and thus represents a poor use of resources.The paper argues that the vestiges of segregation can be more quickly erased by extending equal educational opportunities to Black students.It proposes to redirect funds currently being spent on VIT and busing toward this goal.Resources will be used to guarantee college or trade school tuition for students, raise educational standards and teachers' pay through a pay-for-performance plan, create an entrepreneurial fund, and to fight the elements of urban decay which have a negative influence on the educational process.

Table of Contents

  1. Background
  2. An Alternative
  3. Education
  4. Tuition Guarantee for Post Secondary Education
  5. School System Reform
  6. Tracking
  7. Skills Testing
  8. Site-Based Management
  9. Pay-For-Performance
  10. Calculating the Bonus
  11. Second Pay-out
  12. Implementation
  13. Implementing Tracking
  14. Family
  15. Parents as Teachers
  16. Head Start
  17. Latch-Key Program
  18. Crime/Urban Decay
  19. COPs Program
  20. Youth Recreation
  21. Entrepreneurial Fund
  22. Operation
  23. Money in the Bank
  24. A Choice of Approaches
  25. First Year Budget
  26. Second Year Budget
  27. Third Year Budget
  28. End Notes

Next: Background