A Rising Tide of Mediocrity

Posted on by Susan Pendergrass

If Spanish philosopher George Santayana is correct that those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it, then he may be disappointed in Missouri high school students. In 2017, the latest year for which data are available, only half of Missouri students scored Proficient or higher on the state’s American history exam. That’s not great, but on top of that, the quality of the exam is questionable.

A recent analysis by the Fordham Institute of state civics and U.S. history standards granted Missouri C’s in both. Once again, Missouri holds firm to its spot in the middle of the pack. Overly broad language and incoherent organization are two of the reasons cited for our mediocrity. The recommendations for improving the standards include:

  • Reorganizing the American government course so that it is chronological rather than in “strands” or themes
  • Including specific examples, such as Supreme Court cases or acts of Congress, wherever possible
  • Providing deeper and more specific guidance for teachers

Making sure that our students leave school with a solid grasp of the history of this nation and what it means to be a citizen are two of the more important roles of our public education system. Missouri needs solid and coherent standards, along with assessments that are well aligned to those standards. We need a better framework for schools and districts to graduate students ready to join civil society as knowledgeable citizens.

Medicaid Expansion Ruling, Special Session and the Cost of Tax Subsides

Posted on by Elias Tsapelas

This week, David Stokes, Patrick Ishmael, Susan Pendergrass and Elias Tsapelas join Zach Lawhorn to discuss the recent ruling on Medicaid expansion, the kickoff of a special session with high stakes and what tax giveaways can really cost a city like St. Louis.

Listen on Apple Podcasts 

Listen on Sticher 

Listen on SoundCloud 

Overland Park Considers Adding Tolled Lanes to Expand Highway

Posted on by Jakob Puckett

Drivers on U.S. Highway 69 in Overland Park near Kansas City are about to see some market-based transportation policy in action, and Missouri policymakers should take note.

A proposal approved by the Overland Park City Council and the Kansas Department of Transportation to add two tolled lanes to U.S. Highway 69—one in each direction—will go before the Kansas Turnpike Authority for final approval. Local officials cited increased traffic from an expanding population, which is only expected to continue growing, as the need for such an expansion. Rather than paying for the project directly out of the city’s budget, officials want to use tolling to pay for the construction.

The lanes would be tolled electronically, with drivers either being billed from a K-Tag transponder or by having their license plate scanned. The prices to use these lanes will vary, with prices highest when road usage—the “demand” for roads—is highest. The original four lanes on the highway will continue to be toll-free, so drivers concerned about the cost won’t have to pay for a lane they don’t end up using.

Missouri policymakers also should consider using tolling to finance new highway lanes, particularly in areas where traffic is expected to increase beyond what the current system can handle. Congestion pricing, as this policy is also called, reduces travel times and can also help reduce local air pollution as fewer vehicles are idling on the road.

I hope the benefits of Overland Park’s tolled lanes won’t go unnoticed in Missouri. There are a lot of reasons why tolling is a policy that deserves to be explored in the Show-Me State as well.

First Results of Our Request for Critical Race Theory Curricula

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

Earlier this week, we began a new transparency project focused on whether schools in Missouri are teaching critical race theory (CRT) concepts in the classroom. Similar to the Show-Me Checkbook and Show-Me CBA projects, the Show-Me Curricula Project seeks to find out from Missouri schools what Missouri tax dollars are buying Missouri parents.

Most schools that have replied so far have told us that they do not have documents that are responsive to our request, meaning they claim they have not incorporated CRT into their curricula and have not talked publicly about it. I trust those representations are true. Readers can follow what we’re receiving from schools and districts, as we receive them, by clicking here. We appreciate the promptness of the responses of districts that have already gotten back to us.

Notably, the Hazelwood School District sent four documents responsive to our request for CRT-related materials: three curricula and one public statement. Some of the CRT materials are incorporated by reference; there are instructions in the curricula to review and discuss content in a linked website but the content is not necessarily fully articulated in the curricula. Some examples of what I found:

Content from the New York Times’ 1619 Project dealing with early European explorers is prescribed for fourth-graders, and ninth-graders are told that the 1776 Commission, established by former President Donald Trump, was an exercise in “identity politics”—a charge it did not also level against the 1619 Project.

The curricula for fourth-graders and eighth-graders also direct teachers, by a link, to materials provided free of charge by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and marketed variously as “Teaching Tolerance” and “Learning for Justice.” Readers will find substantial CRT content at this SPLC website.

To be sure, it is difficult to know the full extent to which CRT concepts will be taught in Hazelwood schools; curricula doesn’t always translate directly to the classroom. But it is fair to believe that these materials represent the baseline of the school’s CRT instruction.

Our Sunshine Law request also returned a Hazelwood School Board public statement. Per the statement, the district is engaged in ongoing, unspecified racist practices—a remarkable admission, given taxpayers are being forced to subsidize the district through their taxes. In a long list of action items, Hazelwood’s school board says it will:

[e]mpower the superintendent and charge her with boldly addressing and correcting institutionalized racist practices that have survived because of a “wall of silence and denial,” against our students and in our schools much like that in police departments. The Board will hold itself and all staff, accountable for the same. [Emphasis mine]

I did not know about Hazelwood’s “institutionalized racist practices,” and therefore I did not request documents relating to it. It may be the subject of a follow-up Sunshine Law request.

I encourage the public and parents especially to read for themselves the materials that are being provided, and to do their own due diligence with their own schools as classes return later this year. Transparency is a fundamental part of good governance. Likewise, transparency is the bare minimum that districts and schools should be offering taxpayers when it comes to problematic curricula.

Time Running Out to Protect Telemedicine

Posted on by Elias Tsapelas

One of the few bright spots from the past year was the removal of various barriers that were needlessly restricting access to telemedicine services. Unfortunately for Missouri, unless there’s action before August 31, those barriers will be going back up.

At the outset of the pandemic there were serious concerns that an influx of patients would overwhelm our state’s hospitals and clinics, and expanding telemedicine usage offered a timely solution. Allowing patients to access their health care providers remotely helped relieve the strain on an area’s hospitals while also allowing those at risk of being exposed to the virus to receive care from the comfort of their own homes. That’s why back in March of 2020, after Governor Parson declared a state of emergency to help the state respond to COVID-19, he then waived various regulations that were making it harder for Missourians to receive care via telemedicine. (See more here about the specific regulations that were waived.)

But as our communities turn the corner on the pandemic, it’s likely Missouri’s state of emergency declaration will be allowed to expire on August 31. And with its expiration, the various regulations that were waived to fight the pandemic will return, which includes those that restrict access to telemedicine. My colleagues and I have been writing for the past year about the importance of making these and other regulatory waivers permanent, and while there was some optimism toward the end of the legislative session, none of the bills including those provisions made it across the finish line.

It’s important that our elected officials remember what was learned during the pandemic. So much has changed over the past year, including the dramatic rise in telemedicine usage, and there’s no reason to return to the old status quo when we now know that things can be better. Too many Missourians still struggle to access the health care they need when they need it; why would Missouri bring back old barriers that only make receiving care more difficult?

Going into next year, improving health care access for Missourians should be a priority for our elected officials. The easiest way to move forward is the policy of making permanent the regulation waivers that have been so helpful over the past year.

Ready, Fire, Aim

Posted on by David Stokes

A group has released a new plan to consolidate the fire departments of St. Louis County and create more independent fire districts. But, first, a little background.

The residents of St. Louis County are either served by municipal fire departments, such as the Clayton Fire Department, or by independent fire districts, such as the Monarch Fire District. The fire departments are run by the mayors, city councils, and city managers of their respective towns. The fire districts are run by independently elected fire boards.

In past years, there have been plenty of scandals in fire service management in St. Louis County. Clearly, the scandals must have been in the municipal fire departments, which is why the plan is to eliminate these departments and replace them with the Ceasar’s wives of the fire districts. Right?

Wrong.

The scandals in the fire districts have been well documented over the years by the Post-Dispatch and others. (Unfortunately, I am unable to locate online the main series of investigative stories from the Post-Dispatch that was published about 20 years ago—the lessons in it still stand.) It is the fire districts that have seen consistent financial mismanagement and worse. So why would somebody propose eliminating fire departments and expanding fire districts? Who would possibly propose such a thing?

The fireman’s union, of course. It is likely easier to take electoral control of an independent fire district than a city hall. People pay much more attention to their votes for mayor than their votes for fire district board. Mayors and city council members must consider the costs of fire service as one of many important services their cities provide and put that within a context of overall taxes and spending. Fire district officials just think about spending money on fire services, usually with much less oversight than a city hall gets. In a few places in recent years, such as the Mehlville and Monarch fire districts, newly elected members of the districts have attempted to better control costs. Things have improved at those two major fire districts, but at the price of constant vigilance by the residents. There have been more recent examples of taxpayer abuses in the Northeast Fire District, and the Robertson Fire District is continuing to squeeze the City of Hazelwood to this day.

While nobody says democracy should be easy, you also don’t want to make it harder than it needs to be by constantly growing the number of special taxing districts that voters have to carefully pay attention to. Special interests can benefit from this lack of attention by the average voter, and that is why fire departments should remain under municipal control in St. Louis County.

Merging a dozen municipal fire departments in mid–St. Louis County into one large fire district is a bad idea. You almost have to admire the audacity of it.

There were some good ideas and some bad ideas in the Better Together proposal of a few years back. The work the organization did with the fire departments was probably some of its most poorly done work.

We do need more consolidation, service sharing, and less fragmentation in St. Louis County government. This proposal by the fireman’s union is absolutely the wrong way to go about it.

Clayton Expands Opportunities for Food Trucks

Posted on by Kate Poortenga

Food trucks are often more popular with customers than with legislators. For years, food truck owners have fought their way through burdensome red tape to survive in the market. The convenience, low prices, and unique options of food trucks are becoming increasingly attractive to people, and policymakers are starting to catch on.

On June 8th, legislation was approved in the City of Clayton to allow more freedom and flexibility for mobile food vending equipment. Previously, food trucks could serve closed groups at private events, but they could only serve the public on their own property. That essentially allows food trucks to do the “food” part of their name but not the “truck” part.

This new legislation allows food trucks to operate at public events outside downtown Clayton with an approved special events application, expanding a food truck’s market to include block parties, neighborhood gatherings, and similar events. The legislation also lifts the prohibition on individual cash payments at these events.

Current permit requirements remain (temporary merchant permits, right of way permits, special events permits, etc.) and safe use of streets and sidewalks remains a priority. While food trucks still cannot serve the general public in downtown Clayton (unless the food truck is on its own property), these changes mark significant progress. This legislation is a good move for food truck vendors and customers.

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