A report released this week by the Missouri House Interim Committee on Education recommends changing the school transfer statute so it wouldn’t be so financially destructive to troubled school districts.
The report, which comes after the committee held 11 listening sessions across the state, provides a glimpse into what proposals might receive the most backing from key education committee lawmakers. Their attempts to change the law in previous years have been unsuccessful.
What’s missing from the report are recommendations that have gummed up debate over altering the law in the past. There is no recommendation to create a tax credit program allowing children in unaccredited districts to attend private school, as some school choice groups advocate. Nor is there any recommendation that would result in halting the transfers altogether, as many superintendents are urging.
The report advocates a uniform tuition cost that would be significantly less than what many districts are charging per transfer student. Normandy and Riverview Gardnes are being hit with a wide range of tuition prices, from $8,471 per student for children transferring to Mehlville schools to $19,861 for those in the Clayton district.
“A more uniform calculation of tuition would also help eliminate penny-wise and pound-foolish decisions such as selecting a more distant district to receive students based on a drastically lower tuition,” the report says.
The report will be used as a framework as members of the House and Senate education committees determine what education bills to move forward with in the 2014 Legislative Session.
“People can file any legislation that they want to,” said Rep. Steve Cookson, R-Poplar Bluff, chairman of the House Education Committee. “We’re going to concentrate on bills that are outlined in this,” he added, referring to the 16-page report.
Over the summer, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the transfer law that allows children in unaccredited districts to transfer into higher performing schools, with their home districts responsible for tuition and transportation costs. The transfer of about 2,200 children from the Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts has put both districts in danger of going bankrupt this school year or next.
The report makes recommendations in other areas, such as increasing the number of hours and days children who are behind must spend in school, and adding days to the school calendar when a school district is slipping.
It suggests expanding access to early childhood education statewide – a recommendation that received wide support during the 11 stops across the state. One superintendent even told the committee he’d trade 12th grade for preschool. Expanding early childhood education received broad backing among the 22 members of the House Interim Committee on Education, said Rep. Lyle Rowland, vice chairman. “We need to figure out some ways of funding it.”
Rowland, a Republican from the Branson area, expressed some frustration with the transfer discussions. The statute was originally intended to affect only school districts in rural Missouri without high schools. And yet, the discussions about the statute have been limited to the transfer situation involving 2,200 kids from Normandy and Riverview Gardens, he said.
“We’re educating close to a million kids in the state of Missouri,” he said. “And this is the hottest topic on the block.”
