St. Louis schools

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The numbers that tumble off the page of the state's most recent evaluation of the St. Louis schools are heartbreaking -- and infuriating. They tell the statistical story of failure, of promise wasted, of young lives dead-ended before adulthood. ...

The steep road ahead to full accreditation by 2008 is an almost impossible climb. ...

This editorial page backed the current school board of blue-ribbon members. It backed the expensive, controversial effort to bring in a CEO from the corporate world. It reluctantly supported giving the St. Louis schools a few more years to reach state accreditation standards before a state takeover.

But the reforms largely have failed. If the schools can't meet the state standard for accreditation ... the state must take over and to make sure that the children of St. Louis are educated for life.