For Immediate Release: For more information contact:
June 25, 2014 Rep. Tommie Pierson at (573) 751-6845
STATEMENT
RE: Governor’s veto of SB 493
“Governor Nixon is to be commended for decisively vetoing SB 493, an anti-public education bill masquerading as a fix to the flawed student transfer law that is pushing previously financially stable districts into bankruptcy.
“After the first Missouri Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the transfer law in 2010, lawmakers had three years to enact a fix to prevent the predicted problems with the law from becoming reality. Unfortunately, efforts to advance a fix were blocked by those whose ultimate goal is the privatization of public education.
“With the implementation of the law in the Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts last summer following another Supreme Court ruling, legislative action was imperative this year. Instead of finally prompting the legislature into passing a true fix, the anti-public education forces used the transfer crisis to advance their own agenda.
“Unproven educational experimentation on young black children will not provide them the quality public education they deserve. With the governor’s veto of SB 493, the General Assembly has another chance to fix the transfer law without undermining local public schools. For the sake of all Missouri children, it must not fail again.”
State Rep. Tommie Pierson
Legislative Black Caucus Chairman
66th District
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