Archive for November 2020

Photos by Lindy Drew, Humans of St. Louis

Many schools have started hybrid in-person and online learning, even as coronavirus cases keep rising and students continue to experience disparities in accessing technology, meeting their daily needs, and learning at home. So in this episode, we’ll hear from a first generation college student who has been helping her community navigate the education system and an executive director of a local education-based nonprofit will share what parents and families face when navigating the St. Louis Public Schools system and how that impacts students’ experiences with higher education. And then, we’ll zoom all the way out to examine why St. Louis’ educational landscape remains uneven and segregated over six decades after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

This episode was produced with the help of Lindy Drew, Lead Storyteller and Co-Founder of Humans of St. Louis, which is a paid content partner of Navigate STL Schools and Forward through Ferguson.

As always, We Live Here’s coverage remains independent.

State Sen. Scott Sifton is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where he talked with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about the dismal election results for the Missouri Democratic Party and ways it can get back on stable footing.

The Affton Democrat represents Missouri’s 1st Senate District, which takes in most of unincorporated south St. Louis County and municipalities like Webster Groves, Maplewood and Brentwood. Because of term limits, Sifton was barred from running again in the General Assembly’s upper chamber.

Here’s what Sifton talked about during the show:

• How President Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in Missouri almost certainly led to dreadful results for Democrats, including Gov. Mike Parson’s big win over Democratic state Auditor Nicole Galloway.
• What happened in some competitive St. Louis County races, including Republican wins by state Sen. Andrew Koenig and U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner. Sifton also touched on the decline of Missouri Democrats’ fortunes in rural parts of the state.
• Why the passage of Amendment 3, which repealed the Clean Missouri redistricting system, will have big consequences for Missouri Democrats going forward. He also touched on whether bipartisan commissions or appellate judges would even consider using the eligible voting standard when counting Missourians, which could mean children aren’t included when the redistricting process begins.
• Whether Missouri Democrats have a strong enough bench to run in critical races in 2022 and 2024. Two years from now, Democrats will be defending state Auditor Nicole Galloway’s position and trying to take back a U.S. Senate seat held by Roy Blunt.

Sifton is an attorney who was first elected to the Missouri House in 2010. After a single term, Sifton challenged Sen. Jim Lembke in one of the most competitive state Senate contests of the decade. Sifton narrowly prevailed and won reelection in 2016 by a relatively comfortable margin.

Sifton considered running for governor this year but bowed out of that race to endorse Galloway. He ended up not running for anything this year, but he hasn’t necessarily ruled out reentering the electoral arena at some point.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Scott Sifton on Twitter: @ScottSifton

Music: “Eulogy” by Tool