Fate of Missouri open enrollment bill uncertain as May 16 deadline looms
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
With the May 16 legislative deadline fast approaching, the clock is ticking on a bill that would make Missouri an open-enrollment state.
House Bill 711, sponsored by Rep. Brad Pollit (R-Sedalia), would allow K-12 public schools to decide whether to accept students from neighboring districts. It passed the state House in March with an 88-69 vote, marking the fifth consecutive year the bill has cleared the House.
The legislation would cap student transfers at 3%, create a special education fund and delay varsity sports eligibility for high school transfers. Pollit’s bill would also not require participating districts to add teachers, staff or classrooms to accommodate transfer students.
The Senate took up HB 711 on Wednesday for a third reading; however, after several provisions were made, it was placed on the Senate’s informal calendar for Monday.
The third reading was delayed again on Monday as the Senate turned its attention to other legislation. The chamber remains in session, leaving open the possibility that discussion on the bill could resume before adjournment.
Senate changes to the Open Enrollment Act
The House version of the open enrollment act did not include transportation funding, which the Missouri National Education Association found “troublesome.”
“Students who are from middle-class families or working-class families may not be able to access the portions of open enrollment, particularly around whether or not they have access to transportation,” MNEA spokesperson Mark Jones told ABC 17 News. “What you may have is students whose both parents work in the morning and can't drive 30 or 40 extra minutes to drop their kid off at school, would not be able to access this. Whereas, those kids from families that are more well off or are already going to elite private schools would have greater access to two different educational choices.”
However, a Senate provision that was adopted on Wednesday would include state funding for transportation, which was not included in past iterations of the bill.
The amendment from Sen. Lincoln Hough (R-Green County) blocks open enrollment for students in years when state funding for key programs -- including the foundation formula, teacher baseline salaries or transportation -- falls short and ensures transportation funding must also be fully appropriated for open enrollment to proceed.
The bill also includes open enrollment into charter schools. During Wednesday’s Senate session, proponents of the bill argued that it mimics the "free market" and motivates districts to improve.
The MNEA, however, fears the legislation will undermine public education, which serves 92% of the state’s students.
“There's no evidence that charter schools do better than their local public schools, and there's plenty of evidence they do worse,” Jones said. “We've had charters in Missouri since the 1990s. Numbers of them have closed in the middle of the school year, and we're just not convinced that charter schools, as they exist in the state of Missouri, help students. What we should be doing is putting the resources where we know works, which is in local public schools.”
However, the Missouri Charter Public School Association pushed back against this claim, citing a study from the Policy Research in Missouri Education (PRiME) Center, a nonpartisan research center housed at the Saint Louis University School of Education:
“In Missouri, including St. Louis, charter schools generally show higher student growth scores compared to traditional public schools (SLPS), particularly in math, according to the Missouri Growth Model and reports by organizations like the PRiME Center at Saint Louis University. While both charter and traditional schools have seen improvements, charter schools often demonstrate more rapid growth, especially for students from diverse backgrounds."
"This is just one example of a body of research showing that Missouri's charter schools are delivering strong outcomes for students," Missouri Charter Public School Association spokesperson Edie Barnard told ABC 17 News in an email.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern (D- Clay County) said during session last week that 255 schools voiced opposition to the bill.
“Bills like this, well-meaning or not, often are trying to find a silver bullet strategy instead of doing the hard work of what we know works, which is a highly qualified teacher in a classroom,” Jones said.
A provision offered by Nurrenbern would exclude charter schools from open enrollment. However, it has yet to be approved by the Senate.
Check back for updates.
