Porn Shops and Liquor Stores and Charter Schools, Oh My!

With about 9,500 public charter school students on 17 campuses and another eight more schools expected to open by fall 2010, you'd think all was going pretty well for the charter school movement in St. Louis...but you'd be wrong of course.

While the movement continues to grow in the Gateway City, the public schools system is shrinking and faces the prospect of closing as many as 29 buildings it owns. For the six charter schools still looking for a building to call home, you'd think that some of the 29 might do the trick...but not so fast.

Last year, the district barred porn shops, liquor stores and... wait for it... yes, charter schools from purchasing the shuttered properties.

(Porn shops and liquor stores and charter schools, oh my!)

According to a story in today's St. Louis Post Dispatch by David Hunn, the district changed its sales contract deed restrictions last year to bar purveyors of beer, sex toys and rigorous educational standards after a developer flipped a purchase to Imagine Schools, which then (gasp!) opened the Academy of Careers Middle School.  

Missouri Charter Public School Association executive director Aaron North and State Representative T.D. El-Amin are among many working to reverse the ban this year. Let's wish them success.