ST. LOUIS — The Board of Aldermen is expected to vote Friday on a symbolic ban against any new schools opening in St. Louis, where the population of children continues to shrink.
The push for a moratorium on new schools follows the closing of eight city schools this spring, mainly due to falling enrollment.
Supporters say the goal is to pressure charter school operators to curtail their growth. Only the state Legislature can place restrictions on the opening of charter schools, which are publicly funded but operate independently from the local district.
One charter school is slated to open in the city in September. At least three others are in the pipeline for the next few years.
“The local, state, and federal support for school choice programs continues to create a system of schools and programs that fight over a declining population of children and a shrinking pool of resources, leading to duplicated services and system-wide inefficiencies,†reads the resolution sponsored by Alderman Jesse Todd of the 18th Ward.
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The resolution calls for a citywide education plan to determine the ideal number and locations of public schools. The St. Louis School Board passed a similar resolution in February. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed also expressed support for a school expansion moratorium during the mayoral campaign.
The city’s school-aged population declined by 19% between 2007 and 2018, according to the resolution. Last year, St. Louis Public Schools enrolled 19,460 students in preschool through 12th grade, down 12% from the previous three-year average. At least two dozen of the district’s schools enroll fewer than 200 students, considered a threshold for viability.
An additional 12,000 students attend charter schools in the city. The average performance score for charter schools, which includes factors such as attendance, test scores, and high school or college preparedness, was 80% in 2018, the most recent figures available. St. Louis Public Schools posted an average of 79%, according to state data.
"There just isn't a coherent, cohesive plan for what education in the city looks like,"Â said Dorothy Rohde Collins, president of the St. Louis School Board.
Atlas charter school, which is leasing space from Central Baptist Church in Midtown, has registered fewer than half of its projected fall 2021 enrollment of 130 kindergartners and first grade pupils, according to a July 8 document.
Another charter school, City Garden Montessori, will expand this fall into a second building in the Botanical Heights neighborhood. Last month, school leaders said there were 12 open seats in kindergarten and 40 in preschool.
Charter advocates oppose a moratorium and say parents want more choices for public schools.
“We’re going to continue our work. We don’t have enough high quality schools,†said Robbyn Wahby, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Commission, which is sponsoring Atlas and is considering the applications of three other charter schools that intend to open by 2024.
A moratorium on new schools would have a “perverse effect†by encouraging more families to leave the city for suburban school districts, Wahby said.
