Kathleen Sullivan Brown is the associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at UMSL.

Over the last few weeks, two unaccredited north St. Louis County school districts have been making headlines.

Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts recently employed for the first time a Missouri Supreme Court ruling allowing students from the unaccredited districts to transfer to better schools. After selecting Francis Howell in St. Charles County and Mehlville in south St. Louis County, respectively, interested parties from all around have been expressing concern.

Kathleen Sullivan Brown, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, discussed Missouri’s school transfer law with the St. Louis Beacon. Brown said even though the law is just now being used, it dates back 20 years and the court case that prompted the current rush to prepare for transfers began in 2007.

“Why is everybody so surprised? This train has been coming down the track for years,” Brown told the Beacon. “I am really concerned about the lack of leadership on this whole thing, mainly on the part of the legislature. They have refused to deal with it. They didn’t want to touch and wanted to let the court deal with it.”

Brown said it’s not about which district is attended, it’s about the students and investing in them. She talk to “The Pulse of St Louis” on KPLR (Channel 11) about that responsibility.

“These children are children of the state of Missouri and we need to educate every one of them,” Brown told “The Pulse.”