Saint Louis, Mo. — Saying it would have “exacerbated” existing hardships, Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed Senate Bill 493 — a bill seeking a number of changes to Missouri’s chaotic schools transfer law — and doubled-down on the State School Board’s actions last week in the failed Normandy School District.
Among Nixon’s primary complaints was the bill’s narrowly drawn “private option.” The bill would have allowed students in failed districts to transfer to private, non-sectarian schools within their district if public options had been exhausted.
“Unlike the accountability to taxpayers that locally elected school boards provide, this scheme for directing public funds to private schools would come with no such protection,” Nixon writes in his veto message.
Nixon also criticized the Francis Howell School District’s decision last week not to continue to accept Normandy transfer students. When the State Board moved last week to dissolve Normandy School District and waive its accreditation status, it effectively gave Francis Howell the legal room it needed to reject Normandy students. While Nixon said he hoped other schools would not follow the example, it was not immediately clear whether or not he agreed with the underlying decision to waive accreditation status — status necessary to determine a student’s legal right to transfer out of a failed district.
During the writing of the bill, some lawmakers slammed Nixon for being aloof and non-communicative throughout the process, which he says simply isn’t true.
“I told them from the beginning how I felt about public funds going into private schools,” Nixon told reporters.
“The governor has provided no solutions during this process, offering only a fear-based public relations strategy and rhetoric,” said Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democratic co-sponsor of the bill. “This bipartisan bill gave real solutions to real students. My disappointment is in knowing yet another few years’ worth of students has been deemed expendable in this political fight.”
Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey also spoke against the state board’s Normandy actions in a written statement.
“In addition to vetoing a workable solution, the governor’s Department of Education and his appointed education board have gone well beyond their legal authority and have effectively blocked the opportunity for hundreds of kids to continue to transfer to better schools. Sadly, kids who are willing to take the brave step to transfer to new schools in order to make a better life for themselves, now find the way blocked by bureaucrats who think they know better,” Dempsey said.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
