JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The chief architect of the Missouri legislature’s bill aiming to address the school transfer crisis in the St. Louis-area said Tuesday that the bill simply cannot pass without a so-called “private option.”
“If that bill comes back without the private option, we don’t have the votes here (in the Senate)” said Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, D-University City. “There is not going to be a transfer bill without a local private option.”
Her comments came in response to an amendment to a bill attempting to roll back adoption of Common Core state standards. Sen. Scott Sifton, D-St. Louis, moved to attach school transfer language to the bill that did not include an option for students to transfer to locally owned private schools.
Sifton said he was attaching the language in case Chappelle-Nadal’s bill, Senate Bill 493, does not move in the final weeks of the legislature, or to give Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon something to sign in the event that he opposes the private option, himself.
“I want to make sure whatever gets to the governor’s desk becomes law,” he said. “We’ve got to get something done here.”
In the House, lawmakers are expected to bring up the bill as soon as Wednesday. Upon passage, it would likely be sent to a conference committee.
“We’re really confident about our conference committee,” Chappelle-Nadal said.
On Tuesday, Chappelle-Nadal was the subject of an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – the hometown paper of both Senators and the schools at the heart of the transfer crisis – accusing her of being “clueless as to the value of public schools” for her support of a private option.
“A fix to the transfer law must pass this year, and it must provide hope to children and teachers and community members who right now have no idea what their school districts are going to look like next year,” the editorial wrote. “Holding them hostage to the voucher debate is downright offensive.”
Chappelle-Nadal scoffed at the editorial on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
“For six years, I was killing vouchers,” she said.