JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers are scrambling to get a series of compromises written into a conference committee report for a piece of legislation aimed at the way the state handles students from unaccredited public school districts.
Members of both chambers on the conference committee are optimistic that they can have a conference committee report written sometime during the next few days and circulating among members by early next week. Members have met every day this week, sometimes multiple times both in public and private, to hash out a series of differences between Senate and House language.
Earlier this week, lawmakers agreed to a complex tuition calculation formula, a compromise between sending districts hoping to cap tuition they pay to accredit schools and receiving districts who didn’t want any cap. Another controversial provision, the expansion of charter schools, appears to finally have found a middle ground. The conference committee report will likely limit the expansion of charter school availability to parts of the state with the largest school districts.
The bill is one of the few bills left in the legislature that is a stated priority bill for leadership in both chambers, and lawmakers working on the bill are hoping to gather signatures, debate and pass the legislation before the end of next week.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
