Educational philosophy of Blunt State Board of Education appointee examined

Accountability has been the watchword in education across the United States for years, with an increased emphasis on high-stakes standardized tests.
If his latest appointment to the State Board of Education is any indication, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt must be headed in an entirely different direction.
Donayle Whitmore-Smith, 39, St. Louis, is closely linked with Blunt campaign supporter (and leading voucher advocate) All Children Matter, and at one time was the state leader of an organization backed by the powerful Friedman Foundation, foundation, founded by the late Milton Friedman, the father of the voucher movement. That agreement with Blunt's philosophy on vouchers appears to be Ms. Whitmore-Smith's only qualification for a state board position.
She has referred to her only experience as a public school student as "hell" and has been a tireless advocate for vouchers and for the euphemism that is now used for vouchers- school choice.

But other than vouchers, Ms. Whitmore-Smith's own adult school experience, as the founder of the private Ptah Academy of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis, appears to be about as far from Blunt-style education as a person can get.

This description of the Ptah Academy was provided in an article in the June 11, 2001, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as Ms. Whitmore-Smith was attempting to get the school started:

The school plans to offer a curriculum that might best be described as New Age, though Whitmore scoffs at the label. Children would learn yoga along with math, eat only organic and vegetarian school lunches, participate in meditation and receive no formal grades.

Without grades and standardized tests, it is hard to see how anyone could compare the education at Ms. Whitmore-Smith's Ptah Academy with the education received at any other public or private school.

Ms. Whitmore-Smith attempted to have the Ptah Academy declared a charter school by the state, which would have enabled it to receive state funds, but state officials did not approve the plan. The Academy lasted only three years and never had more than 40 students, two of whom were Ms. Whitmore-Smith's children.

State education officials stamp of disapproval on Ms. Whitmore-Smith's brainchild and her own statements on public education and her unceasing advocacy of voucher and voucher-type programs would seen to be an indicator that she enters the state board with an unhealthy agenda.