On Tuesday, the Wentzville school district, in the St. Louis area, elected a felon to their school board.

Michael Feinstein served 38 days in prison and four years of probation for embezzling $105,000 from the health foundation he was working for in the early 2000s. He later gambled it away.

Feinstein was one of the candidates endorsed buy the districts NEA, which pulled their support just days before the election, only after mailing an endorsement flyer to voters, as reported buy the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

“Feinstein, of O’Fallon, Mo., said he wasn’t hiding the information during the campaign. He said he spoke openly about his record with officers from the Wentzville teachers union who asked him about it on March 30 and, as a result,decided to pull the organization’s support for Feinstein the following day, but only after they had sent out a mailer endorsing him.”

While it is illegal for anyone to hold a school board position if they are convicted of a felony, Feinstein is in the clear because the crime was committed in another state. That should ease the minds of parents, voters and taxpayers.

“A candidate cannot have been convicted of, found guilty of or pled guilty to a felony under Missouri law,” says the Missouri School Boards’ Association’s guide for candidates. “Further, a candidate cannot have been found or pled guilty to a felony or misdemeanor under federal law.”

However, “a person convicted of a felony in another state can file as a candidate in Missouri as long as he or she has served the sentence and is not on probation for the crime.”

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