With the school district facing continued unaccredited status, the mayor says he’ll get more involved in education.
Yesterday, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education officially passed on upgrading the district’s status from unaccredited.
The mayor’s office says in light of that decision, Mayor Sly James wants to refocus the community’s education conversation.
“Decades of talk about district boundary lines, political scorekeeping and other tertiary adult-focused issues haven’t gotten us far down the path of ensuring every child in the city has access to a quality education,” said Mayor James. “It’s time to refocus the community education discussion on our students.”
Mayor James is also calling upon the Missouri Legislature to join his efforts to refocus education discussions and to align their spending priorities accordingly.
According to his office, James thinks the Turn the Page KC, his grade level reading initiative established in 2011, could help.
“Turn the Page KC focuses on kids – not districts, politics, or adults,” James says. “Because of that, we are able to concentrate on what is most important – the academic achievement of the people who will lead this city for generations to come.”
The mission of Turn the Page KC is to mobilize the community to achieve reading proficiency at grade level or above for all third graders in Kansas City, Missouri, his office says. Summer learning is one of the central tenets of the initiative and the 2013 summer programming was a partnership between Upper Room and Turn the Page KC.
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