The large 167-page education bill, Senate Bill (SB) 727, has been making quick progress through the state legislature and is now in the Missouri House. There are a number of reforms in the proposal, including:

·         Education savings account (ESA) expansion ·         Charter school expansion ·         New voting procedures for moving to a four-day school week ·         Re-establishment of required minimum days of instruction in certain school districts ·         Aid bonus for districts that meet new minimum-day requirements

·         Reworking of how students are counted for the funding formula ·         Creation of a new evidence-based home reading program ·         Increase in teacher salaries ·         Ability to implement pay differentiation for teachers in certain hard-to-staff subjects ·         Creation of a scholarship program targeting hard-to-staff subject areas and schools

 

This bill proposes some needed reforms that will improve the educational landscape for our students, families, and teachers. Students and families would have greater access to the schools that best suit their needs.

However, there are still a number of changes that could make SB 727 stronger. Below are links and summaries to three detailed breakdowns of different policies contained in the bill.

The Missouri Senate Moves on Education Choice

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• Eligibility for the MO Scholars program is dramatically expanded with SB 727.
  • Eligibility for MO Scholars is expanded outside Missouri’s 10 largest communities.
  • The low-income restriction line has been raised from 200% of the free or reduced-price lunch boundary to 300% (a yearly income of roughly $166,000 for a family of four).
• However, unlike the other states that have passed similar legislation, Missouri still would not provide any public funding for the scholarships under SB 727.
  • Funds still must be raised from scholarships through donations by individuals or corporations.
  • Missouri should provide public funding for the MO Scholars program
• Charter school expansion to Columbia is a good start, and hopefully more cities will be eligible in later years.

Now Is Not the Time to Tinker

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• Missouri does not need to tinker around the margins of the current state foundation formula—we need to build a new one.
• SB 727 changes how students are counted for the state aid formula, from all attendance to half attendance and half enrollment. The bill acknowledges the chronic absenteeism crisis, but waters down the incentive to fix it.
• Even with the change, districts can still use the highest number of students from the past three .
• Missouri cannot redeem this funding formula with tinkering—we need to go back to the drawing board and mimic a student-oriented system like the system in Tennessee.

How Will the Four-Day School Week Progress in Light of SB 727

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• SB 727 creates a new voting procedure for parents to have a say in switching to a four-day school week (4dsw), but this only applies to the largest Missouri communities.
  • Only around 100 of the 553 school districts and charters will be subject to this new voting process. Smaller communities are excluded—they should not be.
  • Without open enrollment or greater educational choice policies, there will still be numerous families trapped in a 4dsw district despite preferring a different schedule.
• SB 727 re-establishes instructional day minimums in Missouri, but again, this only applies to the largest Missouri communities.
  • Large school districts will be required to have 169 instructional days if they operate on a five-day school week, and 142 days if they use a four-day school week.
  • Most districts and charters in the state—80 percent—are not subject to this requirement.
  • The threshold for this requirement is still rather low; most states require 180 instructional days.
• An aid bonus is provided for districts that have 169 instructional days. This provision appears to be an attempt to diminish the use of a 4dsw. However, this would probably be unsuccessful.
• A 1% aid bonus would equate to an average of $24,000 for districts that used a 4dsw in 2022–2023; a 2% bonus equals an average of $48,000.
  • This would be equivalent to around 0.6% of a 4dsw district’s total expenses, which is not a huge sum to incentivize a major schedule change.
• If the goal of this provision is to diminish the use of the 4dsw, it will probably be ineffective. Could money instead be spent on another program, such as providing public funding for the ESA program?
• For many small school districts in Missouri, it does not appear that SB 727 would create any significant incentive to reverse the trend of moving to a 4dsw.

The suggested changes outlined above could serve to make SB 727 stronger and improve the educational environment for students, parents, and teachers in Missouri.