What’s Going on in Kansas City, MO ?

Chris Geden, Community Outreach Director, Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri

I know that many of you have, like me, been paying close attention to what is happening in the Kansas City Missouri School District. So when I read this article, I thought I should share it with you.

As the article states, Mayor Sly James has been tasked, by Chris Nicastro, Missouri’s Commissioner of the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, to bring together parents, students, elected officials, and business and civic leaders, so they can develop a set of recommendations about the future of their District. In this article, Mayor James was quoted as saying, “We won’t get this chance again…This is it…We need to be focused on doing it right not doing it fast”.

While I do understand and respect the desire to find the right path forward for KCMSD, I would like to caution James and the other consensus builders that they should feel a heightened sense of urgency. They need to be moving fast and smart at the same time because everyday that they are focused on building a consensus about what to do and not actually doing anything, is another day that the status quo remains, which for kids in KCMSD means a school district that does not have the ability to provide an education.