Missouri General Assembly Legislative Update Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City From Bert Kimble, Tom Rackers and Steven Carroll March 27, 2014 The Missouri General Assembly returned from spring break this week to finish the last eight weeks of the 2014 legislative session. There are currently hundreds of bills that are on both the Senate and House calendars or are ready to be assigned to the calendars. As in all sessions past, once spring break is over, a sense of urgency creeps over the Legislature in an attempt to find common ground to pass legislation. We will see if this year is any different as there is much unfinished business involving varied issues. In the House this week, the leadership took up the full House budget, which they perfected and finished with 3rd reading today. The budget now heads to the Senate for their deliberation on each of the budget bills. In the budget, HB 2002, regarding elementary and secondary education, passed the House on a 126-26 vote. This budget includes a $122 million increase in the foundation formula, $25 million in the transportation formula, $34 million in Prop C funding, $8.2 million for pre-k funding for unaccredited and provisionally accredited schools, a new line item appropriation of $3.5 million for reading specialist programs for struggling school districts, $750,000 for the St. Louis Public Schools Option to Remain Program, and a new line item appropriation of $400,000 for math and science tutoring programs. Sen. Schaefer, Chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Rick Stream, House Budget Chairman, have worked well together in the past in regard to finding compromises on appropriation matters. However, Sen. Schaefer and Rep. Stream do not currently agree on all of these line items for education and, thus, we must lobby Senate members in an effort to keep these increases, and in some cases, to get additional increases for these line items In regard to the student transfer issue, specifically SB 493, if I had a crystal ball and was still a member of the legislature, I would currently bet that the votes are not there to pass this bill in the House as it is currently written. I believe the vote would be very close, but I believe a majority of the Democratic members, if not all, and a large group of out state Republicans cannot support this bill. Not to mention, once the bill is heard, and then possibly amended, and passed out of the House Education Committee, which is a strong prochoice education committee, the bill might lose even more support. If someone were to want this bill to die, then the best bet would be to load it up with more controversial items, such as more open enrollment, virtual schools and expanded tax credits/vouchers. We had discussions today with Rep. Rick Stream in regard to this issue. He will be one of the leaders in the House on moving a student transfer bill forward and he indicated to me he thought chairman Steve Cookson would most likely hear SB 493 next week in his
committee. He did say he did not know then if the House committee would vote to pass out SB 493 or would wait and pass out a substitute for Rep. Cierpiot and his student transfer bill. We will know more on this issue next week, but once this thing starts moving, things will start happening quickly and we will stay in close contact with you during this time. In other House action this week, the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee held hearings on three bills, HBs 1639, 1780 and 1895. There summaries are as follows. HB 1639 -- This bill allows a teacher who obtains certification on the basis of the American Board for Certification of Teaching Excellence to be granted a Missouri teaching certificate in elementary education. HB 1780 -- This bill, in its main provisions: (1) Allows public high schools that offer postsecondary course options to their students to include virtual courses; (2) Requires, beginning with school year 2015-2016, public high schools that provide dual enrollment to give preference to a provider that lists the offered course on the transfer bank established under Section 173.005; (3) Defines the terms "comprehensive learning portal," "performance-based learning" and "supplemental program"; (4) Requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop a plan to communicate options for earning credit, no later than August 1, 2015, which must include a list of high schools whose policies permit early high school graduation. The department is also required to complete development of a statewide standard transcript that accommodates performance-based learning by August 1, 2016; (5) Requires the development of a personal plan of study for students, beginning with seventh grade, to include graduation requirements, career or post-secondary goals, related course work and opportunities, which might be offered outside the student's school, career-related experiences, and assessments relevant to developing the plan; (6) Creates the performance-based learning council, composed of 12 members, in addition to its ex-officio members the commissioners of Education and Higher Education and the Director of the Department of Economic Development in consultation with the Director of the Workforce Development Division. Members will serve four-year terms. The council must meet at least twice each year and must provide an annual report on its progress and an annual public hearing to receive comments. The council's duties include developing a recommendation for a state-coordinated policy for meeting student needs that addresses all levels of learning; identifying obstacles to providing services across institutional or jurisdictional boundaries; recommending solutions for problems at specified critical transition points and for the alignment of exit and entry levels and sectors; and developing recommendations for funding to be delivered no later than October 1, 2015;
(7) Requires, beginning with school year 2015-16, each public high school with a combined remediation rate of 35% or more to implement a process to use its assessment results for proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics in conjunction with a post-secondary institution during the high school course. Beginning with school year 2016-17, community colleges must accept a statewide assessment rating of proficient or above as a passing score on a placement test, unless the community college has adopted its own placement test; (8) Requires, by school year 2015-16, the performance-based learning coordinating council to certify multidistrict comprehensive performance-based learning programs, based on elements specified in the bill; to post school grade or improvement ratings of each approved provider; and to develop an evaluation method for providers of part-time programs. Any savings must be expended on instructional improvement or tools for electronic and digital instructional methods; and (9) Repeals the 25-person limit on the staff of the Coordinating Board. HB 1895 -- Currently, for the purposes of the calculation and distribution of state school funding, school district or charter school virtual classes are reimbursed for 94% percent of the hours of attendance possible for the class as if it was delivered in the nonvirtual program. This bill changes the percentage to 95%. On the Senate side this week, the Senate Education Committee held hearings on two controversial bills sponsored by Sen. Lamping, SB 514, and Sen. Emery, SB 798, which involves the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for state schools. These hearings lasted several hours on Wednesday afternoon and because of the number of witnesses for and against, it did not conclude. The committee will take the bills up again next week in an effort to conclude the hearing. SB 514 is a much simpler bill and simply states as follows: Section A. Chapter 161, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 161.855, to read as follows: 161.855. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the state board of education, the department of elementary and secondary education and school districts shall not implement the Common Core State Standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any substantially similar learning standards. Any actions taken to adopt or implement the Common Core State Standards as of the effective date of this section are void. SB 798 is a little more complex and the summary is as follows: This act requires the State Board of Education to convene work groups whenever it develops, evaluates, modifies, or revises either academic
performance standards or learning standards. The work groups must include individuals of diverse viewpoints. The State Board must hold at least two public hearings whenever it develops, evaluates, modifies, or revises either academic performance standards or learning standards. The State Board must also solicit feedback and comments from the Joint Committee on Education and academic researchers of diverse viewpoints. The State Board of Education is prohibited from implementing or taking any action relating to the Common Core State Standards. School districts and charter schools are prohibited from using the Common Core State Standards to comply with the requirement to provide instruction in the essential knowledge, skills, and competencies at appropriate grade levels. Any actions taken by the State Board of Education prior to August 28, 2014, not in compliance with state statute are void ab initio (Latin term meaning from the beginning ). School districts and charter schools may adopt their own education standards provided they are in the public domain. This act abrogates any regulation that in whole or in part conflicts with the act. (Section 160.514) The State Board of Education must modify, and revise as necessary, the statewide assessment system. The State Board of Education cannot adopt or develop a criterion-referenced assessment instrument based on the Common Core State Standards. In addition, the academic performance of students cannot be transferred out of state in any form for reporting to non-state education entities. This act repeals two provisions that terminated in 2006. (Section 160.518) When the State Board establishes, evaluates, modifies, or revises academic performance standards, learning standards, and the statewide assessment system, it must consider the work done by other states, experts, and associations. This act repeals the requirement that the State Board of Education adopt the work done by consortia of other states when establishing academic standards and the statewide assessment system. In addition, the State Board of Education must consider null and void by legislative action any memorandum of agreement with any assessment consortium funded by the United States Department of Education. The Commissioner of Education must notify the General Assembly within six months of updating the statewide assessment system, as described in the act. The General Assembly may veto any update by concurrent resolution, as described in the act. The Commissioner of Education must update a procedure to allow the State Board to regularly receive advice and counsel from certain groups whenever it
develops, evaluates, modifies or revises academic performance standards, learning standards, or the statewide assessment system. This act repeals obsolete references to the Commission on Performance that was previously repealed. (Section 160.526) This act repeals authorization for the Department of Economic Development, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Department of Higher Education to directly enter into agreements with the P-20 Council. Instead, the departments will be bound by statutory requirements for state purchasing and contracting. (Section 160.820) The State Board of Education's authority to classify the public schools of the state and to formulate rules governing school accreditation must allow individual school districts to determine targeted priorities for the district, plan of action, resource needs for implementing the plan, and evaluation criteria. (Section 161.092) The bottom line is that both of these bills do the same thing and would keep DESE from implementing the Common Core State Standards. Numerous witnesses from Missouri Coalition Against Common Core testified that they felt these mandated state standards took away local control and it was not good public policy. The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City supports common core. They believe the standards in common core have been internationally benchmarked and would prepare our students to be more competitive in a countrywide and global job market. While DESE and countless school districts have spent an enormous amount of money developing these standards, these controversial bills are picking up some steam in the State Senate. The vote in the Senate Education Committee on these two bills appears to be very close. There are now only nine members on the education committee as Sen. Rupp has been appointed to the Public Service Commission. Currently, we believe Chairman Pearce and Senators Romine, Curls and Holsman oppose the bills. Senators Brown, Emery, Libla and Nieves support the bill. Senator Chappelle-Nadal has not stated a position at this time. So it is going to be very exciting and interesting to see where we end up on this issue. On another matter in the state Senate this week, the senators passed Senator Kraus income tax reduction bill, SB 509. Democrats put up little fight in regard to this bill as many feel Governor Nixon will veto the bill again should it get to his desk. We will continue to monitor this bill during the legislative process. If you have any additional questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Steven R. Carroll & Associates 215 E. Capitol Avenue Jefferson City, MO 65101 573-761-5952 fax 573-761-7490