To understand who’s to blame for the movement to form the city of St. George, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister says you only need to look at other cities that have broken away from Baton Rouge in recent decades.
“No one woke up one day and said, ‘Let’s start a city,’” McCollister writes in his latest column. “That wasn’t the case for the City of Central either. Both movements arose from parents who wanted good schools for their children and who didn’t want to move out of the parish to achieve that. Can you blame them?”
The people of Central saw what the residents of Zachary had and wanted that, too, McCollister says.
“They attempted to get control of their schools and establish an independent district, like those in Texas. Then-state Sen. Kip Holden opposed such a move, claiming they were not a city, and their bill was defeated,” he writes. “My understanding is that a ‘city’ is not required for an independent school district. But Holden used that excuse and forced the people of Central to incorporate.”
Likewise, when the parents of southeast Baton Rouge decided they wanted control of their schools, they went to the Legislature and asked twice for a vote of the people to allow them to proceed, McCollister notes.
“State Rep. Pat Smith, a former East Baton Rouge school board member, led the charge to deny the vote and kill the bill using the same false claim that this area was not a ‘city,’” McCollister writes. “That bill was defeated for two years and forced the hand of parents to follow the Central model and petition to become St. George. Did you know all of that history? There’s more.”
Smith, McCollister says, was one of the worst East Baton Rouge Parish School Board members for having teamed up with the teachers unions to fight all forms of school choice.
“She led the charge years ago to keep KIPP Academy—one of the top charter school operators in the country—out of Baton Rouge 17 years ago,” he writes. “She protected her political turf and denied our children and her own constituents access to an excellent education. What a shame and disgrace and loss for our community.”
Scott Shirey, who applied to open a school here, has been in Arkansas and now operates six schools at KippDelta.org, McCollister notes. And in November 2011, Forbes listed Shirey as one of the world’s seven most powerful educators.
“Smith ran him out of Baton Rouge in 2001. KIPP now has 209 schools in America, and 11 are in New Orleans. There are still zero in Baton Rouge thanks to Smith. Did you know all this history? Did you forget it? I didn’t,” McCollister writes. “I think of it as I listen to Smith babble on TV about caring for children and wanting to provide for them. Nonsense. And to think that many of our legislators followed her lead to kill the bill to let people vote on an independent district—and go along with the ruse that there had to be a city. More nonsense.”
Smith and Holden and all the legislators that went along with denying these people a vote on their school districts are to blame for the effort to form a city of St. George, McCollister says.
“It’s their fault. All who followed ‘Pat the Piper’ should be held accountable,” he writes. “Many failed to lead, and they shouldn’t be pointing the finger at anyone with the St. George movement. You made your bed. They want to vote on making their own.”
Read the full column, in which McCollister also discusses the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s new fund to support law enforcement. Send your comments to editor@businessreport.com.
