This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 14, 2011 - Mike Jones, senior policy advisor to St. Louis County Charlie Dooley, acknowledges that he's awfully busy these days -- particularly in his lead role heading up the regional China Hub Commission.
But Jones said today he didn't hesitate when Gov. Jay Nixon approached him in early December to consider accepting a nomination to the St. Louis area spot on thestate Board of Education. Nixon announced Monday that Jones was his choice; his nomination now goes before the state Senate.
Jones, a Democrat, is from the 1st congressional district. According to the governor's office, "Mike Jones is replacing David Liechti, a Democrat who is from the 6th District and whose term expired in July. So now there is a vacant slot on the eight-member board to be filled by someone from either the 3rd or the 6th Congressional District."
With Jones, the makeup of the board remains four Democrats, three Republicans and one vacancy, Nixon's staff said. (The board is short a Republican.) Jones would serve until 2018.
The governor pulled Jones aside to pop the question at the Mizzou-Vanderbilt basketball game on Dec. 6. Jones was among a group of China Hub enthusiasts invited to sit in Nixon's box that night.
As he pondered Nixon's request, said Jones, "For me, it was kind of easy."
Jones credits his strong public education in the city of St. Louis in the late 1950s and mid-1960s with giving him the tools to create an influential -- and lengthy -- career in regional government and politics.
Jones is a former St. Louis alderman who then worked in private industry, including for Anheuser-Busch Cos. In., before returning to politics in the 1990s as chief of staff to then-Mayor Clarence Harmon. Jones has worked for Dooley since 2005.
"I got an an extraordinary education from 1st through 12th grade," said Jones, who attended the city's schools during its heyday under then-Supt. William Kottmeyer, known for developing a nationally renowed reading program. "When I left Beaumont (1967), I was equipped to go to college and do anything."
Now, said Jones, he suspects that's no longer the case -- and not just for students in the city's troubled schools. "Right now, I have a hard time seeing a kid from rural or suburban schools -- and not being from a privileged family -- receiving the same education I did and being where I am in 50 years.''
Jones, 61, said that he and others who received strong public educations then need to bolster and rebuild the system now so "that ladder is there for others to climb on'' and become successful adults.
Jones recounted attending a funeral recently for a former coach, and seeing a number of former high school classmates. What was notable, he said, was "everybody was successful -- and most were from working class families."
"I want to give the hope that every kid in Missouri can have the same opportunity that I and others had,'' Jones said. "This is something I owe the ancestors."
