Publications: SAC Legislative Bulletin

SAC Legislative Bulletin

March 10, 2006

SAC Legislative Bulletin

The official legislative newsletter for the School Administrators Coalition (SAC) which includes

MASA, MAESP, MASSP, MO-CASE, MUSIC, MO K-8, MARE, MSHSAA, & MAPT

For a complete listing of bill summaries that impact education go to
http://www.mcsa.org/reference

If you can not access this link, simply copy and paste the above address in your browser.

URGENT URGENT URGENT

HB 1783

Tuition Tax Credits

HB 1783 sponsored by Rep. Carl Bearden, Speaker Pro Tem in the Missouri House of Representatives, has been filed and is expected to be heard very soon in the House Special Committee on Urban Issues (Monday, March 13 at 6:00 p.m.) and passed on to the full House of Representatives for debate and floor action. The bill represents a major effort by proponents of tuition tax credits and/or vouchers to legitimize the policy of providing public funds for private delivery of education services.

Because of strong support by many well funded corporations and a number of influential state representatives and senators, it will be difficult to keep this bill from winning approval in both the House of Representatives and Senate. If passed by both houses, the governor has indicated he will sign the bill. There are two documents relating to this issue which are available on our MCSA reference link above: 1) a summary of the bill and 2) talking points to use in lobbying against the bill.

The Education Roundtable consisting of eight major education associations including the Missouri School Boards Association, the Missouri State Teachers Association, the Missouri National Education Association, the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals, the Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals, the Missouri Federation of Teachers, the Missouri Parent Teachers Association, and the Missouri Association of School Administrators has made the defeat of HB 1783 its top priority for this legislative session. In order to be successful, the education community must make a united effort to make our elected state representatives aware that passage of this bill will represent a major blow to Missouri public schools. We cannot be successful without your direct involvement and the involvement of the public school community and public school advocates throughout the state.

We need for you to do the following as soon as possible:

1. Contact your state representative and talk to him/her about HB 1783. Explain your reasons for opposing the bill.

2. Explain the importance of this bill to the entire public education community and ask him/her to vote "no" on HB 1783.

3. Categorize the response you get regarding HB 1783 into one of four categories. Either "yes" or "leaning yes" or "leaning no" or "no".

4. Email your response to Penney Rector at penney.rector@mcsa.org or fax your response to Penney Rector at 573-556-6270.

5. Please complete the above tasks as soon as possible as our timeline for action is short.

The name and phone number of your state representative is provided at the bottom of this email.

SIXTY-SIX AND TWO-THIRDS

SOLUTION OR DILEMMA

SB 983 sponsored by Sen. Mayer was heard on Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee. No vote was taken for the bill. SB 983 is identical to HB 1582 sponsored by Rep. Muschany and includes the following items:

1. Starting in fiscal year 2008, each school district is directed to adopt as a goal the expenditure of at least two-thirds of its current operational expenditures on classroom instruction.

2. Classroom instruction is defined, as previously, by the U. S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences but has been amended to add "library and media services" and "guidance service".

3. DESE shall ensure that actual classroom instruction expenditures are reported in both the districts annual accountability report card and in the departments "Report of the Public Schools" publication.

4. The State Board of Education shall report each January to the General Assembly and to the governor a list of the school districts that have met the goal of spending two-thirds of their operational budget on classroom instruction.

5. The State Board of Education shall, also, offer analysis regarding the effectiveness of the goal as well as statistical correlations regarding each districts educational outcomes and percent of current operational expenditures used for classroom instruction.

6. The governor shall annually publicly recognize those districts meeting the two-thirds goal for classroom expenditures as "Governors Students First Districts".

7. Upon approval of either SB 983 or HB 1582, the approved bill shall be placed on the statewide ballot in November, 2006 or at a special election to be called by the governor for that purpose.

SAC believes the following arguments against either SB 983 or HB 1582 are most compelling:

1. The bill still contains a mandate for the public schools with language that states, "Each school district shall adopt as a goal the expenditure of at least two-thirds of its current operational expenditures on classroom instruction." This contrasts with the proponents argument that the bill has been watered down.

2. No positive correlation has been established between meeting the two-thirds expenditure requirement for instruction and student performance. In fact, Standard and Poors through their School Matters research conclude there is no significant correlation between any percentage spent on instruction and student proficiency rates.

3. The legislation can be considered a vote of "no confidence" in the ability of locally elected school board members to establish the proper priorities for spending school district revenues. Thereby, both SB 983 and HB 1582 represent a significant erosion of local control.

At this time, HB 1582 remains in the House Special Committee on Student Achievement and Finance. School administrators are urged to contact both their state representative and state senator and to ask them to vote "no" on either HB 1582 or SB 983.

SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

The Senate Education Committee met on Tuesday, March 7, 2006, and considered SB 984, sponsored by Sen. Rob Mayer. SB 983, the "two-thirds bill", would require school districts to adopt as a goal the expenditure of two-thirds of current operational expenditures for classroom instruction. A representative from First Class Education, the originator of the concept, testified in support of the bill, along with a parent of a private school student. The entire education community testified in opposition. For further information, see separate article.

The Committee went into executive session and voted SCS SB 736, SCS SB 912 and SCS SB 769 do pass, with SCS SB 769 being voted do pass as a consent bill. SCS SB 736, sponsored by Sen. Crowell, would clarify that school districts can offer a class in which the Bible is taught, subject to school board approval. SCS SB 912, sponsored by Sen. Goodman, would authorize DESE to establish a Missouri virtual public school, with details of the program established by DESE through the rulemaking process. And, SCS SB 769, sponsored by Sen. Mayer, would authorize specific school districts to make a one-time transfer from the incidental fund to the capital projects fund.

HOUSE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee met on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 and considered the following: HB 1750, sponsored by Rep. Muschany, would change the timeline during which a school district may be deemed a lapsed district. If a school district was classified as unaccredited within the previous five years and subsequently is classified as provisionally accredited, the district would be subject to lapse. The bill is designed to stop the "yo-yoing" currently allowed by statute, whereby a district could repeatedly move between unaccredited and provisionally accredited status. HB 1522, sponsored by Rep. Sander, would remove the prohibition against including specific information on student diplomas. And, HB 1218, sponsored by Rep. Kraus, would require school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies containing specific information. The Committee did not vote any bills out of committee this week.

TAX INCREMENT FINANCING

HCS HB 1070, sponsored by Rep. Johnson, was debated on the floor of the House this week. Two amendments were adopted, and the bill was ordered perfected and printed. The bill, as perfected, would redefine the term "blighted area" by setting forth criteria that must be met to establish blight; restrict the use of tax increment financing for vacant land; redefine the term conservation area; require that real property tax revenues attributable to the residential portion of a development pass through directly to the affected school districts unless commission members representing the affected districts agree to forego the revenue; require a super majority vote to proceed with a project if the tax increment financing commission makes a negative recommendation or a percentage of registered voters request reconsideration of the decision to proceed with the project; authorize projects within the one hundred year flood plain in St. Charles County if certain projects within the one hundred year flood plain in St. Charles County if certain conditions are fulfilled; and require St. Louis and Kansas City to make a good faith effort to use minority business enterprises or women business enterprises to help complete projects when tax increment financing is used for the project. HS HCS HB 1070 was third read and voted do pass by the House. The bill will now go to the Senate for action.

SUMMER SCHOOL PENALTY

SB 644, sponsored by Sen. Shields, was debated on the Senate floor on Wednesday evening. The bill would phase out the summer school penalty as reliance upon the new formula is phased in. The gifted penalty is not addressed in the bill and would remain as is. The bill was amended on the Senate floor to allow school districts to transport students living within one mile of the school without being subjected to an administrative penalty as is current law when the districts demonstrate that the students are required to cross a state highway or county arterial without sidewalks, traffic signals or a crossing guard, and further amended to allow school districts to recoup for revenues lost due to decreases in fine receipts. The bill has been placed on the March 13 Senate calendar for third reading.

HCS HB 1273 and 1136, sponsored by Rep. Baker and Rep. Ervin, was voted do pass by the House Rules Committee. The bill would eliminate the summer school penalty enacted last session and would modify the gifted penalty for reductions in gifted enrollment greater than forty percent. The bill would also require school districts to identify gifted students as currently required by MSIP standards. The bill will now go to the floor of the House for debate.

NEW BILLS FILED

School Administrator Compensation

On Thursday, March 3, Rep. Carl Bearden, Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Representatives filed HB 1934 regarding the compensation of school administrators and the salary of school superintendents.

The bill would 1) require each school district to annually report by September 1 to DESE the total compensation package including retirement benefits expressed in dollars for school administrators including the superintendent, all assistant superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and any administrative consultants. These disclosures must be made separately for each individual administrator and must be made available throughout the year on DESEs website and on the local school district website if one is maintained by the district (and)

2) require each school district to annually report to DESE for inclusion in the school report card the total compensation package including retirement benefits expressed in dollars for the school superintendent and the highest paid teacher (and)

3) require each school district to disclose the above information to parents, community members, the print media and broadcast media, and legislators.

Obviously, the School Administrators Coalition (SAC) strongly opposes HB 1934 for a number of reasons which will be identified in a timely fashion if this bill starts to move.

Restriction on School Starting Date

During the week of February 27 March 3, two bills were filed which would mandate that any public school could not open earlier than the Friday prior to the last Monday in August unless the voters of each school district approve a ballot question to establish an earlier starting date. The ballot question can only be established by the submission of a petition signed by, at least, five percent of the qualified voters in each school district in the last gubernatorial election.

HB 1933 was filed by Rep. Carl Bearden and four co-sponsors. SB 1114 is sponsored by Sen. Jack Goodman.

The School Administrators Coalition (SAC) is opposed to both HB 1933 and SB 1114 because both of these bills remove the authority of locally elected boards of education to determine the school calendar for their local community.