Governor signs Missouri education legislation
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JOPLIN, Mo. – Missouri Governor, Mike Parson, signed two pieces of legislation today, House Bill 2287 and Senate Bill 727 that will permanently raise starting pay for teachers and guarantee consistent raises year after year.
Another reason Parson says he signed the legislation was the increased funding for head start programs.
Joplin School Board members signed a resolution last week urging the governor to veto the bill, but board president, Rylee Hartwell, says the board wholeheartedly supports teacher pay increases.
“SB 727 is an omnibus bill that, unfortunately, combines several appealing items with several expensive items that could seriously harm public education in our state in the decades to come,” says Hartwell.
He says one of the items in the legislation Joplin School Board members disagree with is the amount of money legislators have put into the Education Savings Account tax credit program a 50% increase.
“In our opinion, the ESA expansion (called the MOScholars Program) is a school voucher masquerading as a tax credit,” says Hartwell.
He says it removes tax dollars from public schools that are required to follow state regulations and provide a quality education for all students, regardless of “their background or special needs.”
“Missouri needs to increase its investment in public education, not use state funds to support schools that get to pick and choose which students they want to teach and what rules and laws they want to follow,” Hartwell says.
Statement from Rylee Hartwell
The MOScholars portion of SB 727 also harms public schools’ ability to hire and retain quality teachers; the current supply of teachers is not enough to keep up with the demand that overnight pop-ups of voucher-funded and vastly under-regulated charter schools would require.
Moreover, the State of Missouri cannot guarantee that Joplin Schools or any public districts will continue to receive adequate state funding to ensure our current teachers, support staff, and programs are properly supported with state dollars. SB 727 particularly leaves districts vulnerable to cuts of up to 67% of transportation funds to fund the increases in the formula and voucher programs. And if funding for the $25 million increase needed to pay for MOScholars later fails, the bill allows the state to guarantee the continued support of the vouchers and charter schools before funding the foundation formula.
Among the items in this 167-page bill that we would wholeheartedly support without reservation are, for example, a much-needed and state-funded increase to teacher pay and the ability to count average daily membership instead of average daily attendance in our foundation formula.
Fulfilling these worthwhile and essential measures alongside the harmful MOScholars Program requirements is deceptive.
Governor Parson, on the other hand, only highlights the positive aspects of the legislation like the following:
Increases all Missouri teachers’ salaries by the January Consumer Price Index report, with a cap of 3 percent annually.
Increases state funding for early childhood education programs.
Increases the funding limit and expands access for Missouri’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.
Incentivizes school districts in municipalities larger than 30,000 inhabitants to have 5-day school weeks.
Establishes the Elementary Literacy Fund.
Increases the small school grant funding program from $15 million to $30 million per year.
Protects retirement benefits for educators who continue teaching after retirement.
Establishes the Teacher Recruitment and Retention State Scholarship Program.
For more information on SB 727, click here. For more information on HB 2287, click here.
