The decision by Kansas City-based Frontier to announce plans to open a new charter school in Boone County is what prompted Columbia Public Schools (CPS) to file a lawsuit in Cole County this week.
The lawsuit is against the state, the state Board of Education and the Missouri attorney general’s office. The lawsuit says Missouri’s 2024 law allowing charter schools in Boone County is unconstitutional. Columbia school board member Suzette Waters says the school board’s vote was unanimous:
“We have known since the law was passed (in 2024) that we believed it to be unconstitutional. But once an application was filed (Frontier), we were able to take action in the court to determine the unconstitutionality of that law … of the provision in that law,” Waters says.
Frontier hopes to open a charter school in Boone County in 2026, starting with pre-kindergarten through second grade. School board member Waters tells 939 the Eagle that the lawsuit is in the best interests of students in our community. Waters is optimistic about the lawsuit:
“I am confident in the tenets of our case. Our lawyers have put together a very well thought out and well-demonstrated argument. But now it rests in the hands of the court,” she says.
Missouri’s 2024 law allowing charter schools in Boone County was sponsored by then-Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden (R-Columbia), who said at the time that you can support CPS and still believe Columbia needs more choices for parents and children. Senator Rowden said in 2024 that he had heard from many parents and business leaders on both sides of the aisle who asked for more choice for Columbia-area residents.