St. Louis Deserves New School Buildings
Maybe other people who vote to close schools are able to move on, but I still think about it every day. In 2021, I was the deciding vote to close eight SLPS schools. At that moment, school closure was the only feasible way to reallocate meager resources across the district. The city’s shrinking population and the school district’s decreasing enrollment were too entrenched and the data too sparse for there to be any other option.
The canary has been singing since the start of our city’s decline. Seven decades worth of newspaper headlines warn of falling census numbers while long-forgotten strategic plans for schools and neighborhoods fill library shelves. The path is well-worn and the ruts carved so deep that any attempt to change course is met with suspicion. Even our begrudging acceptance of these phenomena has historical precedence; the summary of SLPS’s 1985 Long-Range Plan states “maintaining the status quo in Saint Louis really means continuing the decline.”
It is easy to point fingers and assign blame to others. School facilities have been poorly maintained. Neighborhoods, particularly in North City, are victims of divestment and disinvestment. Charter schools do open without considering existing schools. Tax incentives are handed out too freely. All of these accusations have merit, but each contributes only a fraction to the chaos.
The decline continues today, in part, because of the perpetual standoff between city and education leaders. School choice advocates claim to rise above political games, but their presence fans the flames, adding even more adversaries. Difficult conversations about solutions are delayed year-after-year in an attempt to wait for the next mayor or school board to concede the responsibility is theirs alone. The city’s children can’t wait forever.
Since 1991, more than 100 public schools have closed, often leaving a vacant building behind. If school closures are, as scholar Eve L. Ewing writes, “like a death,” then in St. Louis we leave our dead unburied. Plywood boards hang askew over windows and doors. The mortar between century-old bricks crumbles into rubble as trees find their way through roofs. Faded “Now Enrolling” banners hang even as playgrounds and classrooms sit empty. They once held our future, but now the city’s shuttered school buildings are monuments of decline.
We don’t have to live in mourning forever. School closure was the only viable solution in 2021. But now there is an unprecedented opportunity to design a public school system for the city as it currently exists. Building brand new school buildings would be tangible evidence of progress for our children, our neighborhoods, and our city. Allocating a portion of the Rams Settlement can provide the initial funding to make it happen. A similar program in Baltimore, Maryland requires the state, city, and school district to each contribute $20 million annually with the intent to construct or renovate two dozen schools.
Here, the endowment should first pay for a facilities assessment of every public school building — district and charter, occupied and vacant. This assessment, along with demographic data and community input, would be used to prioritize projects and identify locations of new facilities.
Initiatives that span election cycles are notoriously difficult to implement since policy agendas shift and motives change. However, an endowment external to both the city and school district would spread responsibility across administrations, insulating against the political forces that impede progress. And just as I have spent three years trying to reconcile my role in our city’s long history of school closure searching for more proactive alternatives, I urge all policy makers — current and former, elected and unelected — to consider how their decisions (or indecisions) and actions (or inactions) have contributed to the current condition. Intention alone does not cement a legacy. In the end, it is determined by the measurable impact of implemented policies.
Gleaming new school buildings could rise above previously vacant lots. Students and teachers could thrive in buildings that are healthy, secure, accessible, and equipped with modern technology. But the longer strategic planning and funding are delayed, the longer students will go without the facilities they deserve. Building new public schools will garner broad support — families, educators, politicians, and business leaders will all benefit. This is an investment in our future, St. Louis. Let’s do it together.
You can show your support for this idea by voting for it in the Board of Aldermen portal. Voting is open through February 2.