These St. Louis charter schools have struggled for 14 years, but continue to evade closure

Of the more than 10,400 children who attend charter schools in St. Louis, few perform worse as a group than the 2,800 who attend Confluence Academies.

The network of five schools on four campuses has lagged far behind state averages on Missouri standardized exams throughout its 14-year history.

That kind of persistent failure is supposed to be at odds with the very concept of charter schools. The independently run, publicly funded schools are founded on the idea that, if they fail in their promise to provide a better alternative to traditional public schools, they should be closed.

And yet on Tuesday, Missouri’s Board of Education said it had no choice but to grant the schools a fresh five-year license to operate.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/these-st-louis-charter-schools-have-struggled-for-years-but/article_4bc986cd-4b56-5b17-a431-e7a1d2ff054b.html