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A lot of good news and a little bad. But, boy, the bad is hard to swallow. »

The Star and the governor drop the ball, instead of the axe, on Chris Nicastro

December 12, 2013 by jimmycsays

I don’t understand why The Star and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon are pussyfooting around on the case of Chris Nicastro, Missouri education commissioner.

Nicastro, who has been education commissioner since July 2009, has twice exhibited her propensity for secretive dealing with individuals and organizations seeking to direct the course of important city and state educational matters.

The disturbing episodes took place within a few weeks of each other — close enough to discredit her in the eyes of many officials, including several state legislators who are screaming for her scalp.

She reports to the Missouri Board of Education, which consists of eight citizens appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Missouri Senate.

Our intrepid governor, Jay Nixon, got way out on the ledge at a news conference Monday and said the state Board of Education should “monitor and evaluate” the concerns raised about Nicastro. Maybe he doesn’t want to be viewed as publicly telling the Board of Education what to do, but he at least could have said that he was concerned.

Today, The Star’s editorial page, which readers look to for clear-spoken direction, came out with an underwhelming, leading editorial titled “Secrecy harms chance to help KC schools.”

Like Nixon, The Star failed to call Nicastro to account. The editorial mentioned “the questionable process” on the study and “behind-the-scenes maneuvers,” but then it lamely segued into the issue of the Kansas City School District’s attempt to gain provisional accreditation.

Let me recap Nicastro’s transgressions.

About two weeks ago, it came to light that Nicastro had conspired with an organization financed by Rex Sinquefield — a St. Louis area resident who has earned the nickname of “the meddling multimillionaire” — to craft ballot language for an initiative petition that would give Missouri voters an opportunity to eliminate teacher tenure.

Then, late last week, Kansas City Star education reporter Joe Robertson reported that emails obtained by The Star revealed “Nicastro’s wish for a statewide district to gather poor-performing schools under new leadership, with an office for innovation and charter school expansion.”

The proposed district would have enveloped the Kansas City School District, which lost its accreditation in 2012 but seemed to be on the verge of gaining provisional accreditation, based on the most recent test scores.

The emails also detailed a hurried and wired bidding process that steered a $385,000, privately funded contract to an Indianapolis firm to develop a plan for overhauling the Kansas City district’s failing schools. The Indianapolis firm was selected over three competitors with less costly bids, including one, as Robertson said, “that offered to do the work at a third of the cost” of the selected firm’s bid. On the private study, Nicastro colluded with the Kauffman and Hall Family foundations of Kansas City.

It’s clear to me that Nicastro has lost all credibility and is on the way out. My prediction is she’ll be gone by this time next week.  

The Star and the governor could have insured that result by emphasizing that Nicastro, as education commissioner, had an obligation to be straightforward and transparent in dealing with major, public educational issues.

The headline on today’s KC Star editorial should have said simply: “Nicastro must go.”

And Governor Nixon should have taken a courage pill and said, “I am disturbed and disappointed by reports of Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro’s actions, and I expect the Board of Education to review the situation and report to me by the end of this week.”

When you’ve got a top-ranking public official who has clearly compromised her integrity, it’s time for those who have the ability to hold such officials accountable to do just that.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

14 Responses

  1. on December 12, 2013 at 1:29 am Larry Luper

    Fitz,
    You are right.


  2. on December 12, 2013 at 8:21 am Vern

    Somebody needs to say these things plainly. Thanks for doing it.


    • on December 12, 2013 at 8:26 am jimmycsays

      I appreciate the reinforcement, Vern…Welcome to the Comments Dept.


  3. on December 12, 2013 at 12:14 pm kate

    You are absolutely right about the editorial, but I think the work Joe Robertson has been doing on this is terrific.


    • on December 12, 2013 at 12:46 pm jimmycsays

      I completely agree, Kate…Joe’s Dec. 7/8 story, when he broke the news about the contract was outstanding. Here it is.


      • on December 12, 2013 at 6:39 pm John Altevogt

        Where it is?


  4. on December 12, 2013 at 7:07 pm jimmycsays

    Click on “here it is” and there it will be.


  5. on December 13, 2013 at 8:50 am chuck

    Malfeasance and skullduggery are the last best hope for a resolution to the ongoing cancer that is the KC School District. More, much more Machiavelli and far less input from local grifters and cronies of a bankrupt (Literally and metaphorically) district and corrupt local politicians.


  6. on December 13, 2013 at 10:14 am John Altevogt

    This is quite the transition for The Star. Under both Brisbane and Zieman this kind of thing was promoted. I can recall many an article explaining what the Civic Council’s goals were for the city (without a word as to what the hell the Civic Council was, or why we would care what their goals were), or the latest report from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, not to mention the Chamber, indicating the direction the city should/would be moving in..

    Pronouncements from these groups were treated with much more credibility by The Star than anything uttered by public officials (unless they were confirming the decision handed down from on high by these groups). But now there appears to be a crack in the dam given this report and the Star’s at least partial divergence from the establishment’s goals on the research tax.

    That transition is certainly far from complete as evidenced by The Star’s support of that idiot Mark Holland over the uber competent and uber independent Ann Murguia in WYCO, but clearly a transition there is, or I don’t think we’d be reading about this issue on their pages.


  7. on December 13, 2013 at 2:05 pm chuck

    Little off topic here Fitz, but your recent article on the “Comments” section in the KC Star had me thinking you might like this read.

    http://www.thelocal.se/20131210/sweden-democrats-more-heads-may-roll

    Criminal charges to follow?


  8. on December 13, 2013 at 8:42 pm kct

    Nicastro’s email exchange with Sinquefield’s people was obtained by MO NEA. The emails regarding the contract surrounding the privatization plan were obtained by MORE2. Both groups filed routine FOIA requests for the emails. Not The Star and not Joe Robertson. He merely wrote the story.


    • on December 14, 2013 at 12:10 am jimmycsays

      I knew about the MORE2 request, but I didn’t know NEA was responsible for the Sinquefield break. I should have given credit where it was due…You’re absolutely correct about Robertson, but he did a heck of a job laying out the story about Nicastro working with the Hall Family Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation on the special school district.

      Welcome to the Comments Dept, kct.


  9. on December 13, 2013 at 10:32 pm Ned Scott

    “I don’t understand why The Star and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon are pussyfooting around on the case of Chris Nicastro, Missouri education commissioner.”

    Jimmy Boy, you are being coy…The Star has been in the tank for “Kauffman Foundation style privatization” of public education for years…. And Mr. Robertson is not so much an education “reporter” as he is a lobbyist and carrier of water for the “Ed-Deform movement.”

    Surely your journey through the land of the KCFC (Kansas City Fat Cats) and the Jackson County Question 1 vote have exposed you to a dimension where the public interest takes a back seat to the profit motives of the connected.

    Nevertheless, I do find enjoyment in the slapstick of The Star/Robertson being forced by the ethics of “good journalism” to trip over a story that exposes its own hypocrisy… (Thanks editorial board for beating a weasel-ly retreat!)


  10. on December 19, 2013 at 2:34 pm Will Notb

    1. It’s this time next week already.
    2. Nicastro’s plan, however hidden, makes more sense than anythung the KCPS has tried in the last 30 years and would have the added benefit of removing the district’s long corrupt administration from the equation.

    More power to her.



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