JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – With just three days remaining in the legislative session, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon called on legislators to scrap their agreement on school transfer legislation and remove a provision that would allow local tax dollars to be spent in private, non-religious schools.
“Keeping public funds in public schools has been a core belief,” Nixon said. “The legislature is currently considering a bill that would violate that fundamental principle. Using public money for prate schools would destabilize the strong foundation on which public schools stand. It would open the flood gates for a voucher scheme.”
He added, “That’s where I draw the line.”
Nixon the fact that K-12 foundation formula is already not full while lawmakers are considering allowing public dollars to be used to public schools amounts to “trying to float that boat to drill a hole in.”
Into the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, House and Senate negotiators continued to hammer out details of the wide-ranging education reform legislation. Lawmakers in both chambers agreed to move forward with a private, non-sectarian option for transfer students in urban communities subject to approval of local voters.
“We basically said that if a school district decided to have an election within three years of fist becoming unaccredited, they would have the option,” said Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg.
Noting criticism from some Democrats, Pearce stressed that the private-option is incredibly limited to the unaccredited districts, not the entire state.
“For the first time, it does allow public dollars to go to private education,” he said, but added that is only allowed under the legislation for students transferring to unaccredited schools. “I don’t see a lot of folks running to those.”
During conference, they tried to keep the “changes very minor” to ease the process of passing the bill in the final week, he said.
Missouri’s school transfer law was upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court last summer. It has allowed a couple thousand students to transfer from unaccredited districts like Normandy and Riverview Gardens to better performing school districts in the St. Louis region. The law, which requires the sending school to foot the bill for much of the transfer costs, has stressed the budgets of the failing school districts.
The bill would remove the requirement for the sending school to cover the costs of transportation, but how much they would have to pay for tuition would be covered by the receiving school district. If they were to transfer to a private, non-sectarian school district, local tax revenue would cover tuition.
Nixon stopped short of making a veto threat.