Ten legislative bills that could change education in Springfield

As the Missouri General Assembly enters its final stretch, a number of legislative proposals involving public education still have traction.

If approved by lawmakers — and signed by Gov. Eric Greitens — each has the potential to change K-12 schools or higher education in Springfield and beyond.

The budget

The state approves its budget in a series of bills, which are numbered in order of priority. No. 2 on that list is K-12 education, and a large part of state funding for public schools comes through the foundation formula, which specifies how school districts receive state money.

The House passed a spending plan including fully funding under the current foundation formula, though the senator in charge of the budget committee almost immediately torpedoed that notion. School officials often say that the current formula does not reflect the reality of school funding needs and argue that the current system leaves them $500 million short, all told.

Complicating the matter is previously passed legislation that triggers additional early childhood education spending upon fully funding. This could be motivation for the Senate to keep funding levels just shy of 100 percent.

Sen. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa, was able to advance language that would phase in this additional funding in case the pending spending plan ends up fully funding the formula. This would give state lawmakers more time to find as much as $62 million that could be required if the early childhood education expansion is triggered.

Public school funding also includes costs such as busing students to and from school. When Greitens made cuts to balance the current year's budget, he made sure not to touch funding for K-12 classrooms but stripped away several million dollars worth of transportation funding. Sen. Dan Brown, the Rolla Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriation Committee, has said he intends to put more money into transportation funding in next year's budget.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will continue discussing and amending the House's budget. When they're finished, members of both the House and Senate will meet in a conference committee to hash out the differences.

Greitens will have a say when the budget makes its way back to his desk. Because he delivered his budget to the legislature about two weeks later than it normally arrives, lawmakers may be under the gun to fulfill their one constitutional obligation: crafting a balanced budget.

How the Missouri school funding formula works

Charter schools 

Springfield Public Schools could face competition from privately run educational facilities if school choice advocates in Jefferson City have their way.

Legislation authorizing charter schools — a priority for Republicans in power this year — has moved through the House and awaits debate in the Senate.

The proposal includes conditions for the expansion of charters in Missouri, where currently they are only permitted in Kansas City and St. Louis. For instance, a charter school looking to start up could only do so in a district where a school's annual performance score is 60 percent or less. The News-Leader has previously reported that numerous local schools are near or below this threshold.

The bill passed by the House also includes the contingency that the foundation formula be fully funded in order for the charter school expansion to take place.

Guns in classrooms

A local lawmaker's push to eliminate numerous gun-free zones amends state laws pertaining to firearms, but it could have a big impact in classrooms and college campuses.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Nixa, includes a provision that would allow people with concealed carry permits to bring guns with them onto the grounds of colleges and universities.

Missouri State University's lobbyist testified against the bill when it had a public hearing, and several MSU students voiced concern about the idea when asked by a News-Leader photographer.

Taylor's bill has been passed out of one committee, and if it receives approval from an oversight committee this week, it could head to the House floor.

Job training and community colleges

Wasson's focus this session has been job training.

He was on hand when a coalition of community college leaders, including Ozarks Technical Community College's Hal Higdon, signed on to an agreement that allows institutions like OTC to share experts with other campuses across the state

Wasson's Senate Bill 10, which passed the Senate in mid-March, could help fund community college job training by allowing for quicker reimbursement through the Missouri Works Training program.

The bill had a House hearing last week.

Nixa Sen. Jay Wasson's job training bill passes Missouri Senate

'We'll train together as 12': OTC part of Missouri-wide community college job training pact

Greene County sales tax

For the fifth straight year, Sen. Bob Dixon has sponsored legislation that could let Greene County residents vote on a 1/4-cent sales tax to pay for early childhood education programs.

If passed in Greene County, the tax has been estimated to generate about $12 million, which could be spent on public or private programs.

Dixon, R-Springfield, has told the News-Leader that the focus is on getting the bill through the Senate this year before worrying about the House version, and he has had to work behind the scenes in order to give the legislation a chance.

The bill has been passed out of a Senate committee, and Dixon said he arranged with Senate leadership for his bill to be brought up on the floor this week.

Education savings accounts

Education savings accounts were a part of the agenda Greitens laid out in his "State of the State" address in January, and a proposal to create a program designed to give parents more control over their children's education appears poised to clear the Senate.

Senate Bill 313, filed by Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, would create a $25 million, tax-credit-based ESA program in addition to making other changes to education in Missouri.

The program would apply only to children with disabilities, kids in foster care, or young students who have a parent on active military duty, and it would allow the money to be spent on tuition for private schools, proving the students had previously been enrolled in a public school.

Koenig's bill also would require individual schools — as opposed to school districts — to be accredited and would allow students to transfer out of unaccredited schools.

Cronkite New Voices Act

A bill to protect the rights of student journalists has passed the House and could be up for debate soon in the Senate.

The "Cronkite New Voices Act," named after legendary television news anchor Walter Cronkite, would affirm the freedom of the press for student journalists and limit administrative censorship of school publications prior to publication.

Typical ethical reasons for prior restraint — such as breaking the law while reporting or knowingly printing something false, or libelous — would not be abridged. In other words, a student journalist wouldn't suddenly be able to write whatever they want and force administrators to publish it.

Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, introduced a similar bill last year.

Virtual schools

A proposal to revamp virtual education in Missouri also has passed the House and has been sent toward debate in the Senate.

House Bill 138 was filed by Rep. Bryan Spencer, R-Wentzville, and it would allow any K-12 student to take two virtual courses a year. The classes would be paid for by a public school district or a charter school and would be subject to approval by school administrators.

The bill could allow students to take classes they might not otherwise be able to access. One example that has been raised is the case of a small, rural school district that might not have the faculty resources to offer a physics class to high schoolers.

School start date

Two bills would ban school districts from starting school more than 10 days before the first Monday in September.

If one of these bills was law, Springfield Public Schools wouldn't have been able to start school on Aug. 17 and would have had to start more than a week later.

School start dates have arrived earlier in the calendar in recent years.

Neither bill would change the amount of time children are required to be in school, and neither has gained much traction so far.

Adult high schools

Another Wasson bill would require the creation of four adult high schools, including one in or near Greene County.

To be eligible, prospective students would have to be 21 years or older without a high school diploma. Admission preference would be given to students receiving need-based financial assistance.

The bill states that adult high schools would not receive money from the state's foundation formula but could receive money from a nonprofit operating the school, from other private sources or from certain public sources in accordance with the Missouri constitution.

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