By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director
CAPITOL ACTION DAYS
Capitol Action Days are part of the Association's plan to promote positive policy for public education. MNEA's Capitol Action Days occur regularly on Wednesdays during legislative session and continued this week on March 5th. For more information and to register for your Capitol Action Day, please visit https://www.mnea.org/CAD
ACCREDITATION AND ASSESSMENT REFORMS
The Senate Education Committee approved SB 360 (Jill Carter) on March 4. The bill would support local control and reduce the state's heavy emphasis on standardized testing. The Association supports the bill.
The bill would require the State Board of Education to recognize at least two national school accreditation organizations and allow districts to choose to gain accreditation by approval of such a group. The bill also directs the State Board to revise the MAP assessment and restrict the use of the MAP to only the purposes required under federal law. The bill requires school districts to develop or adopt local assessments and allows local assessment results to be part of a district's school report card.
BUDGET
The House Subcommittee on Appropriations - Education met on March 4 and approved a set of recommendations regarding HB 2, the K-12 education funding bill and HB 3, the higher education funding bill. The recommendations will be presented to the House Budget Committee but are not binding on the Budget Committee in executive session.
The recommendations include funding increases of $2.5 million for the Grow Your Own teacher grants, $1.6 million for the Missouri Teacher Development System, $1.6 million for Teacher Recruitment and Retention scholarships, and $3 million for literacy coaches. The Association supports the recommendations from the subcommittee. The Association also recommends that the House Budget Committee restore full formula funding and remove the $50 million GR appropriation for the state's tax credit voucher.
PROPERTY TAX CUTS
The Senate debated SS/SCS/SB 87 (Joe Nicola) on March 4 but did not bring the bill to a vote. The original bill SB 87 would have lowered the assessment ratios of each of the three subclasses of real property by two percent. The Association opposed the original bill. The SS removes the original provisions and adds another county option property tax credit similar to the senior property tax credit enacted in SB 190 from 2024. The SS has no age restriction and could have far greater impact on limiting local school revenues than the current program. No fiscal note is available for the SS version.
The House approved HB 629 (Mike McGirl) on March 6. The bill revises personal property taxation. The primary impact is reducing the assessment percentage from 33 1/3% to 30%. The bill is estimated to reduce local revenues overall by about $200 million when fully implemented.
FLAT STATE INCOME TAX
The House perfected HB 798 (Christopher Warwick) on March 4. The bill would revise the state's income tax. The bill would change the income tax to a flat 4.7% tax by removing all the lower brackets. The bill also raises the standard deduction to the applicable federal standard deduction plus $4000. The bill will reduce state revenues by $140 million when fully implemented.
RETIREMENT
The House Pensions Committee approved HB 329 (Willard Haley) on March 6. The bill would increase the 80% lifetime COLA cap up to 1% per year for any year where the Systems' investments exceed the assumed rate of return by 2% or more. The lifetime COLA cap cannot exceed 100%. The Association is concerned that there is uncertainty regarding the long-term cost of this change to the Systems and whether this change might adversely affect the status of the Systems.
JOINT COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
The committee held an organizational meeting on March 6 and elected Sen. Jill Carter as Chair and Rep. Darren Chappell as vice-chair. The Joint Committee on Education has a responsibility to review and monitor the progress of education in the state’s public schools and institutions of higher education.
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
The committee heard the following bills on March 4:
• SB 276 (Mary Elizabeth Coleman) to revise provisions relating to access to pornographic materials. The bill requires public schools and charter schools to post lists of required books and provide parental access to the school's digital library catalog. In addition, each school district and charter school shall adopt a policy that allows challenges to the age-appropriate designation assigned to any book, material, or display in the district or school. The Association is concerned that the bill allows a student's parent to bring a civil action, including an action for injunctive relief or for damages, for violations of the bill, and such actions may be made against board members or school employees.
• SB 344 (Barbara Washington) to require publicly-funded schools to give students excused absences for attending scheduled elections with their parents.
• SB 375 (Barbara Washington) to require school districts and charter schools to offer students who are 17 1/2 years old the opportunity to register to vote.
• SB 483 (Nick Schroer) to revise law relating to providing explicit sexual material to a student. The bill states that a library district or school district that hires any person found guilty of the offense of providing explicit sexual material to a student shall no longer be eligible to receive any state funds. The bill also adds "approve" to the list of actions regarding providing explicit sexual material to a student.
• SB 485 (Nick Schroer) to move school board elections to the November general election. The bill also shifts school board terms to four years.
The committee also approved the following bills on March 4:
• SB 266 (Travis Fitzwater) to create standards for virtual schools or programs to administer statewide assessments.
• SB 324 (Jill Carter) to require DESE to post on its website any memorandum of understanding or other agreement with a third party.
HOUSE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION COMMITTEE
The committee heard two bills on March 5:
• HB 332 (Ann Kelley) to grant flexibility to schools for certain school employee training requirements. Schools may place current annual requirements on a rotating basis based on school and employee needs. The Association believes this will allow more efficient use of staff training time and better meet student and school needs. The Association supports the bill.
• HB 1287 (Ed Lewis) pertaining to the rights of parents and educators and codes of student conduct. The Association appreciates the sponsor's effort to make a positive statement in support of educators.
The committee approved two bills on March 5:
• HCS/HB 1238 (Willard Haley) regarding pupils attending non-resident schools where the pupil's parent is a regular employee or contractor.
• HCS/HB 941 (Ed Lewis) to prohibit schools from using a "three-cueing system" model of instruction for word reading. The HCS allows reading instruction to include visual information and strategies that improve background and experiential knowledge, add context, and increase oral language and vocabulary to support comprehension.
HOUSE HIGHER EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
The committee approved HB 168 (Donnie Brown) on March 5. The bill would create the STEM Grant program for Access Missouri scholarship award recipients.
TARGETING "DEI" IN STATE AGENCIES
The Senate Committee on Government Efficiency heard HB 742 (Ben Baker) on March 3. The bill would ban state agencies from spending funds on diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The bill defines DEI using politically charged language that differs from the normal concept of "DEI" initiatives. This wording raises uncertainty about how the bill will affect the work of state agencies.
INITIATIVE PETITION RESTRICTIONS
The Senate Committee on Local Government, Elections, and Pensions met on March 3 and heard four similar SJRs to amend the constitution to restrict the ability of Missouri citizens to use the initiative petition. These include SJR 10 (Mike Moon), SJR 11 (Jason Bean), SJR 30 (Ben Brown, and SJR 47 (Jill Carter). The Association opposed the joint resolutions and believes that these resolutions would make it more difficult for Missouri citizens to bring forward and gain approval on measures of interest brought by the initiative petition process.
SJR 10, SJR 30, and SJR 47 would require an amendment to the Missouri Constitution to obtain more than a simple majority approval. These SJRs also require a concurrent majority in either state house districts or Congressional districts. SJR 11 effectively doubles the number of signatures that must be gathered per district and requires this greater number in all eight Congressional districts.
The SJRs also include new variations of so-called "ballot candy", provisions added to make the ballot description sound more acceptable to voters. SJR 10 requires people voting on IPs to be Missouri residents, SJR 30 and SJR 47 restrict foreign activity on IPs.
SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE FILING
The House Committee on Elections heard HB 208 (Dave Hinman) on March 4. The bill moves the filing window for declarations of candidacy for school board and other local offices one week later than under current law. The filing window will extend from the 16th Tuesday prior to the election through the 13th Tuesday prior to the election. The bill further states that if the filing window ends on a state or federal holiday, the window will be extended to the next day that is not a holiday.
HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
The Senate gave final approval to SS/SB 160 (Brad Hudson) on March 6. The bill would prevent a public college from denying official recognition to belief-based student associations that require leaders to adhere to their beliefs, practice requirements or standards of conduct.
CHARTER SCHOOL DEED RESTRICTIONS
The House Emerging Issues Committee approved an HCS version for three bills pertaining to deed restrictions that prohibit buildings from being used as a charter school. HCS/HBs 1363, 1062, & 1254 (George Hruza) would prohibit local ordinances from supporting or allowing deed restrictions to preclude subsequent use of a building as a charter school. The bill also purports to invalidate existing deed restrictions of this type.