Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Senator blocks Whitmore-Smith nomination


A major roadblock has placed in the way of Governor Matt Blunt's apparent plan to stack the Missouri State Board of Education with voucher supporters.
Newly-elected Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St. Louis, has announced he will not support Donayle Whitmore-Smith's nomination to the board. Blunt has said he would not go through with the Whitmore-Smith nomination if the senator from her home district does not sponsor her.
Ms. Whitmore-Smith, as first noted in the Oct. 26 Turner Report,not only has been a leading proponent of educational vouchers and tuition tax credits, but has been outspoken in her criticism of public schools, describing her time in one as "hell."
Ms. Whitmore-Smith is the second of three Blunt pro-voucher nominees. The Senate has not acted on his most recent nominee, Rev. Stan Archie of Kansas City, but in March 2006, it approved his first, Debi Demien of Wentzville, a former public schoolteacher, whose background was not examined closely by the media or the General Assembly prior to the vote that placed on her on the board for the next seven years.

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