JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Despite hours of floor time in both chambers and lengthy committee hearings early this session, lawmakers are still a long way away from having a final legislative fix to Missouri’s struggling student transfer program.
Current Missouri law says that adjacent or adjoining school districts must accept transfer students from nearby schools that become unaccredited. The law has created a fog of chaos, particularly in the St. Louis area, where Riverview Gardens and Normandy School Districts remain unaccredited.
Lawmakers have been embroiled in a fight to repair the broken system for two legislative sessions now. Weighing potential caps on tuition costs, the use of virtual schools, in-district transfers and accrediting schools by individual building rather than by district, House and Senate members hope to send a bill to Gov. Jay Nixon that, unlike last year, will survive with no veto.
Nixon vetoed last year’s transfer bill, widely hailed — particularly in the senate — in as a massive bipartisan achievement, due to a narrowly-drawn provision that would have allowed some public school students to attend private, non-sectarian schools on the state’s dime. Nixon called the funneling of public school funds into private schools “unacceptable,” and the bill lacked the votes in the House, where education issues divide members more wildly, to override Nixon.
This year, leaders in both chambers vowed to send a version of a transfer bill with no “private option” to Nixon’s desk, which was no small task given that some members in both chambers insisted on the option before approving the bill. The size of complexity of the legislation alone indicates a continued floor fight and many amendments to come. In less than a week of floor debate, the Senate version of the bill stretches 84 pages and the body, with the body voting on well more than a dozen amendments by the time it finished its perfection process Tuesday evening. The House advanced their own measure earlier the same day, where the bill is a mere 34 pages. Lobbyists on both sides of the debate agree that the House is a more perilous place for the legislation, and much of the bill may ultimately be written in conference committee later this year.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
