The figure below shows the rapid growth of the 4dsw since the 2010–11 school year.

Source: DESE

Missouri is not alone in this phenomenon. The 4dsw is increasingly popular across the country, especially in rural districts. Even though 36 percent of Missouri school districts use a 4dsw, they cover only 13 percent of students because rural districts are smaller. However, it is notable that the Independence School District in Kansas City, with over 13,000 students, is also on a 4dsw.

Districts typically adopt a four-day calendar in hopes of improving teacher recruitment and retention and, in some cases, reducing costs. In 2024, Senate Bill 727 included a modest financial incentive for districts to have at least 169 instructional days to encourage districts to remain on a five-day schedule. Nevertheless, the use of the 4dsw continues to expand.

My colleague James Shuls and I authored a series of papers examining the effects of the 4dsw on academic achievement, district finances, teacher retention, and parental satisfaction:

• A Systematic Literature Review of the Four-day School Week
• Five for Me: A Survey of Missourians Regarding the Four-day School Week
• Longer Days and Fewer Total Hours: Examining the Four-day School Week in Missouri

Across these reports, we found that the 4dsw was harmful for student achievement, with stronger negative effects for non-rural students. We found that the 4dsw either had no meaningful effect on finances, or that a decrease in costs was almost entirely offset by a decrease in revenues. For teacher retention, the results were mixed. We found that parents had a slight preference for the five-day school week (with those using a 4dsw as the strongest supporters, and those concerned about childcare as the strongest opponents).

Since our papers were published, several newer studies have been published, though the number of rigorous, quantitative studies on the effects of the 4dsw is still limited.

A 2024 study from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) found “small negative or statistically insignificant effects on teacher recruitment and retention outcomes.”

Similarly, a 2025 CALDER study used Missouri data and “found no evidence that the 4dsw improves teacher recruitment or retention,” despite educators and school leaders believing it does. My colleague, Cory Koedel, was one of the study’s coauthors and wrote about the findings in greater detail here.

The 4dsw is not a loophole that saves money and improves teacher retention at no cost to students. In fact, the available evidence suggests that, on average, it is harmful to students while nothing changes for retention and finances.

This does not mean that a 4dsw could never be successful. A district that adopts a 4dsw as part of an innovative educational model could potentially unearth new benefits. However, that is not why most districts switch. School leaders and policymakers should familiarize themselves with the research and approach the continued expansion of the 4dsw with greater skepticism.

The post The Continued Growth of the Four-Day School Week in Missouri appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The largest of these, the Independence School District near Kansas City, will soon hold a public vote on whether to retain its four-day schedule after a judge ruled that the voter-approval requirement in state law is constitutional and must be enforced.

As for the upcoming vote, I expect the 4dsw to be approved. Crystal City recently saw its citizens vote 86.7% in favor of keeping their 4dsw—a result that makes sense, as those who already use the model are typically its strongest supporters. However, the strongest opponents of the 4dsw are those who do not believe that they can provide childcare on the fifth weekday. Even in districts that overwhelmingly vote in favor of a 4dsw, individual families may face real difficulties adjusting.

I believe recent events highlight a broader point: school choice could help relieve some of the tension surrounding the 4dsw by giving parents more options.

Senate Bill 727 and the Four-Day School Week

Senate Bill 727 was an omnibus education bill passed in 2024. One of its provisions requires that districts located wholly or partially in a county with a charter form of government or in a city with more than 30,000 inhabitants hold a public vote for adopting or retaining a 4dsw. As Independence’s recent lawsuit indicated, this only applies to 87 Missouri school districts.

If the goal of this provision was to give Missouri parents a voice on a significant decision, it was fair to ask why the 4dsw would be put to vote in some districts but not others. The recent court ruling clarified that lawmakers had a rational basis for the distinction, citing evidence that suburban and urban districts are more likely to experience negative effects on academics, crime, and childcare access than rural districts. Nevertheless, there remains a need to address the problems that arise when a family’s schedule no longer aligns with its school.

School Choice Can Help

Expanding open enrollment and Missouri’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program could give families the flexibility they need. Open enrollment would allow families to transfer students to districts that best fit their needs, whether that’s a 4dsw district or one with a traditional five-day school week.

This approach enjoys broad support. In 2023, the Show-Me Institute surveyed 1,200 Missouri parents statewide and asked what options should be available if a district moves from a five-day to a four-day schedule. Two thirds of parents supported allowing transfers to another district, while majorities also favored providing vouchers for private school attendance.

Figure 1: Policy Options for Students in 4dsw Districts

“If a school district moves from a five-day to a four-day school week, parents should be given the option to . . . (1) transfer their children to another school district . . . (2) use a voucher for their children to attend private school.”

Support for both options crossed party lines. Among self-identified Republicans, 67 percent supported interdistrict choice and 57 percent supported vouchers. Among self-identified Democrats, 71 percent supported interdistrict choice and 62 percent supported vouchers.

As Missouri continues to debate the 4dsw and how to manage its use, expanding school choice remains the best way to reduce tension and ensure every family has workable options.

Want to Learn More?

My colleague James Shuls and I wrote a series of papers that tackle different questions relating to the 4dsw.

Evidence Based? A Systematic Literature Review of the Four-Day School Week?

Five for Me: A Survey of Missourians Regarding the Four-Day School Week

Longer Days and Fewer Total Hours: Examining the Four-Day School Week in Missouri

The post Four-Day School Week Votes and School Choice in Missouri appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Official numbers from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) have not been yet released for the 2024–2025 school year. However, according to my own compilation, the 4dsw has continued to grow, as now 187 Missouri public school districts operate on a 4dsw schedule, out of 516 total districts.

My colleague James Shuls and I addressed a wide variety of concerns with the growing 4dsw on academic achievement, district finances, teacher retention, parental preferences, demographics, and learning time effects in a recent series of papers. These include a systematic literature review, a survey, and a descriptive analysis.

In brief summary, we found the 4dsw typically lowers academic achievement and instructional time, while also showing mixed and inconclusive effects on district finances and teacher retention. Overall, there is little evidence to suggest switching to a 4dsw has a lot of benefits, so districts should be cautious when considering the switch.

The Missouri Legislature took aim at the 4dsw in the recent Senate Bill (SB) 727 (SB 727). This law requires larger districts to acquire parental approval before switching to a 4dsw, and also creates an aid bonus for districts that have 169 days of school or more (which essentially means you must be a 5dsw to receive it). As the below figure shows, the prospect of these measures coming fully into effect in 2026-2027 did not seem to stop 4dsw growth going into the 2024–2025 school year.

In rural Missouri, the 4dsw is nearing the majority, as 47% of rural districts are now using the 4dsw. In 2024-2025, every new district which made the switch to a 4dsw was a rural district. Still no city districts have adopted the measure, and no other suburban district joined the Independence 30 School District in making the switch—although some have discussed it.

It will be interesting to see how the continued growth of the 4dsw affects our state. Is there a proximity effect—do districts near each other feel more pressured to switch? There is a dearth of information on the 4dsw. Shouldn’t Missouri districts proceed with caution when considering a switch?

The post The Four-Day School Week Continues to Grow in Missouri appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Eric basically said, “Why do it all at once? Why not experiment at one school?” This suggestion may not make sense in a small, rural school district with one elementary school, but it makes perfect sense for a larger school district. Take the Independence School District, for example. The district has over 14,000 students and 20 elementary schools. The district decided to move to a four-day school week.

Think about what district leadership could have done if they had approached this like a researcher.

The Independence School District could have selected two elementary schools to pilot a four-day school week. If it is as appealing as the district says it is, then many teachers and students would likely want to move to that school. The district could have held a lottery to randomly accept teachers and students into the school.

Then we could have had a random assignment evaluation of the school district that moved to the four-day school week. We would have had a group of students in a five-day school and a group in a four-day school and the only difference between the two groups would have been random chance. This is the gold standard of social science research.

I understand the impulse of superintendents and school boards to consider the four-day school week, but they do not have to make the move all or nothing. Pilot it. Evaluate it rigorously. A move this significant deserves that kind of consideration.

The post Considering the Four-Day School Week? Pilot It and Evaluate It appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

While typically a 4dsw district is a small, rural district, that could be changing in Missouri. The Independence School District in Kansas City just began its first semester using a 4dsw this year. The district had over 13,000 students in 2021–2022, which is over 10,000 more students than the second-biggest 4dsw district, Warren County R-III. It will be interesting to see if more suburban and urban districts follow Independence’s example.

Along with James Shuls, I am currently working on a systematic literature review of the best evidence on the effects of the 4dsw. We’ll get into those findings at a later date. Here, I think it is important to discuss the most common arguments for and against the 4dsw. Specifically in this post, I will list the different arguments regarding how the 4dsw could impact academic achievement.

Pros: How This Could Bolster Academic Achievement

• With a longer weekend, students can recharge more and be more attentive in class—leading to instruction hours being more productive.
• Chronic absenteeism could decrease; as kids would have more built-in days to go on hunting trips, weekend getaways, or athletic events.
  • Additionally in rural districts, less time would have to be taken off to help on the family farm.
• Fewer kids would be late to class for doctor’s appointments, driver’s tests, and other necessary errands as families could schedule it on the weekday that school is off.
• Teachers would have more opportunities to improve their lesson plans and collaborate with their colleagues.
  • While there is ample time to discuss these things during school breaks, having built-in professional development days could lead to improvement for some teachers—generating higher academic achievement.
• Teacher retention could increase. With a longer weekend and more days to prepare for class, teachers may have greater job satisfaction.
  • With greater job satisfaction, teachers could be more motivated and help boost students’
• Potentially cutting costs from transportation, energy, or food services on the fifth day could allow districts to divert more funds to instructional costs.
• Longer class times with a 4dsw means that teachers can more easily use different teaching methods like small-group discussions as opposed to mainly lectures—potentially leading to more active participation and academic growth.
• Fewer substitute teachers are needed, as teachers can schedule appointments or recover from sickness on off days.

Cons: How This Could Decrease Academic Achievement

• One fewer day per week means less structure and less time a student is thinking about school.
  • A longer weekend means less repetitions per week of material, which may make it harder for it to “stick.”
  • 50% of schools that use a 4dsw report being completely closed on the fifth day, while 30% offer some sort of remedial or enrichment activity on that day.
  • We all saw what happened to students’ scores when they were not routinely in-person at school.
• It is harder to stay focused over the course of a longer day.
  • Many claim that attention spans have shortened in society. If a 4dsw involves longer school days, there may be more hours where students are not paying attention.
• Many times, 4dsw have about 3-4 less hours in school per week—harming academic achievement.
• A day is relatively more important in a 4dsw schedule than a 5dsw schedule.
  • This could be a particular problem for Missouri which has chronic absenteeism.

• Test schedules become more tightly packed together with one fewer day, along with more homework and longer days of school.
  • This can serve to increase stress on students.
• Teacher retention could decrease. One fewer day of school, that is one fewer day to earn additional income from after- and before-school programs.
• Studies show a 4dsw could be linked to increased, as older students can have an unsupervised dayoff, leading to students focusing less on school or not being in school at all.
• Students with a tough home life may face struggles being home an extra day, increasing mental health issues.
  • For students with little at-home support, less time in school is more harmful to them than others.

Research should be able to give us a better idea the average effect of the 4dsw on student achievement. Whether the overall effects are positive or negative, it seems clear that the 4dsw will not impact all students in the same way. These issues are important to consider when evaluating the 4dsw, and James and I are excited to present our findings in the near future.

The post Common Arguments for and Against the Four-Day School Week appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Districts have implemented this new schedule to lure teachers to their schools during a supposed teacher shortage. However, Show-Me Institute Distinguished Fellow of Education Policy James Shuls has raised questions about how serious this shortage is (if it exists at all). But even if we were to grant that teacher shortages are a problem that districts need to address, the four-day school week will generate new problems, which could be amended by a complementary policy–open enrollment.

Forcing families to adapt to a four-day school week is a significant change that will be disruptive for many parents—particularly those with younger children—whose employers are more committed to the traditional five-day work week. For families of children using the free/reduced-price lunch program, there may be additional difficulties for finding care and proper nutrition on the extra day off. With that said, parents who work from home or otherwise have the flexibility to accommodate the shorter school week might find that the new policy is a good fit for them. Every family is unique—which is why the Missouri State School Board’s recent interest in the possibility of instituting open enrollment statewide holds so much promise.

Open enrollment would enable parents in Independence and the surrounding districts to decide for themselves which schedule works best for their families. If the four-day school week would create serious problems for a family in the Independence district, the chance to move their children to a nearby district that has classes five days a week could be a lifesaver. Conversely, there are probably families in the area surrounding Independence that would benefit from the four-day schedule if they were allowed to switch districts. With open enrollment, districts can offer options while decision-making power remains with the parents.

In any case, the welfare of the children should be the paramount concern of all involved, and the effect of a 4-day school week on learning remains a subject of controversy. Paul Thompson at Oregon State University recently published a study evaluating the impact of four-day school weeks. He noted the numerous benefits that accompany attending school in-person, including face-to-face interaction with both teachers and peers along with opportunities for structured group activities. On one hand, four-day school weeks reduce these benefits and increase weekend learning loss; some students may be more vulnerable to these effects than others. On the other hand, an additional day off provides extra downtime for students and teachers and increased opportunities for students to spend time outside school with their peers. Acknowledging both the positives and negatives, Thompson finds that if schools maintain the same number of hours of instruction they had in a five-day week, these negative effects (reduction in test scores) are mostly negated (but still exist). However, if instructional time is not maintained, the negative effects are strongly pronounced.

Just like individual families, individual students will handle a four-day school week in different ways; it will be a better fit for some than for others. The trick is matching each family and student with the right schedule, and that’s a job best left to parents. If the trend toward a shorter school week has staying power, we’ll learn more about its long-term effects in the years to come. In the meantime, open enrollment has the potential to maximize its benefits and minimize its shortcomings.

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As I previously discussed, the Independence School District cited teacher shortages as a reason for moving to a four-day school week. My goal in the presentation of application and vacancy data is to give the public a better sense of what Independence means when they say “shortage.”

The 2022 data reveals a clear drop-off in the number of applications for job openings.

In 2018, the district had 2,485 applications for 162 job openings (15.3 applications per vacancy).

In 2020, the district had 1,878 applications for 138 job openings (13.6 applications per vacancy).

In 2022, the number of applications clearly dropped. The district received 967 applications for 161 jobs (6 applications per vacancy).

Per DESE guidelines, the district reports the level of shortage on a 1 to 5 scale, where 4 and 5 indicate shortages. Despite having fewer applications, the district reported fewer areas of shortages (7 certification areas rated 4 or 5, compared to 10 in 2018 and 2020). Just one certification area, industrial technology, was rated as a level 5. The district had 3 applications for 2 job openings, but only 1 application was from an appropriately certified individual.

Despite the decline in applications, the district had zero vacancies left vacant in 2022.

I should note, the district did see an increase in the number of positions filled with individuals who were not appropriately certified. In both 2018 and 2020, the district filled two positions with such teachers. In 2022, the district filled 12 positions with teachers without the appropriate certification.

We should note that “not appropriately certified” is a broad category. It includes, for instance, hiring an individual who is certified to teach high-school math to teach middle-school math where they are not certified. A certified teacher could simply take and pass a certification area test in another area to obtain this additional certification. “Not appropriately certified” may also include individuals who do not have an education degree, but are working toward certification. We do not know the full credentials of the individuals hired by Independence.

The Independence School District is clearly experiencing a decline in the number of applications received. Nevertheless, according to DESE’s definition of a shortage, “fewer applicants than positions available,” the Independence School District did not have one shortage area in 2022.

There are a couple more numbers that readers should consider when considering the severity of the supposed shortage in Independence. From 2018 to 2021, district enrollment declined by 576 students. Yet, the number of full-time equivalent teachers increased by 22.

I repeat the questions asked in my first post. Based on these numbers, what do you think? Does the Independence School District have a teacher shortage? And is that shortage severe enough to justify a move to a four-day school week?

The post Does the Independence School District Have a Teacher Shortage Problem? 2022 Data Update appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

You read that right. The student was allowed to attend the virtual school program, so long as she completed the coursework while she sat in a district school building.

For obvious reasons, requiring in-person attendance in a school building for a student to attend a virtual school is a slight inconvenience.

The family took the district to court. And, like all things in 2020, the case was impacted by COVID. The district sent all students home in the spring and changed the requirement to only 5 hours each week of in-person attendance the following fall. Partially as a result, the court ruled in favor of the school district.

Those in favor of allowing parents to choose the best educational option for their child were dismayed by the Independence School District’s actions. Should a school district be able to circumvent the very intent of the virtual education law by requiring attendance?

In response, legislators included changes to the virtual education law in HB 1552 of 2022 which were intended to make it easier for a student to enroll in a full-time virtual program. Previously, a district had to approve a student’s application to enroll in a virtual program. The changes to the law were supposed to remove the home district’s oversight of this process. These changes, however, appear to have been circumvented by new rules put out by DESE.

State Rep. Phil Christofanelli explains this in a recent letter to the Commissioner of Education:

While there were many important improvements in that bill, the primary reform was a full rewrite of the enrollment procedures for full time virtual schools, removing the resident district “gatekeeper” role that had been written into the previous law. The enrollment process for virtual schools (as opposed to supplemental courses) was completely revised so that the parent and the virtual school itself were placed in the lead and decision-making roles, while preserving an input role for the district of residence, if so desired.

The intent of the law, as Rep. Christofanelli explains, was to allow students to enroll in a full-time virtual program without the approval of the district. DESE’s rules leave the district in a position to approve or deny the student and parent’s wishes for a virtual education.

Christofanelli went on to say that “the end result” of DESE’s rules “is an enrollment process for full-time schools that works in the exact reverse order of what the Legislature intended and specifically wrote into law.” He concludes his letter with this: “Please let me know as soon as possible if DESE intends to revise this guidance to bring it into conformity with the new law, or if other steps will be necessary to see that the new law is given the effect of both its intent and clear language.”

It is not clear whether DESE will change their rules regarding the virtual education program or whether the legislature will once again have to take action to address this issue.

The post DESE’s Rulemaking Circumvents Intent of Virtual School Law appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Auditor Nicole Galloway wrote: “The county has not developed a plan for ensuring that performance evaluations of the programs funded by COMBAT are performed annually as required by county code.” She recounted how the county sold a building to the Independence School District for $10 “without an independent appraisal or cost-benefit analysis” after spending $1 million in COMBAT funds on renovating the building. But perhaps her biggest hit was on failure to oversee contracts:

The County Legislature appropriates COMBAT funds to outside agencies, without going through the comprehensive process the COMBAT unit follows in awarding similar contracts to agencies. The contracts awarded to one outside agency by the County Legislature, totaling $120,000 during 2017 and 2018, were a questionable use of COMBAT monies.

In a story on the audit in The Kansas City Star, Mike Hendricks wrote that, “Galloway alleged no criminal wrongdoing and offered few surprises,” because the audit:

. . . largely mirrored findings of the private accounting firm that Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker hired in late 2018 to review the drug and anti-violence program she now oversees. Baker released that report on COMBAT last fall.

In response, the Jackson County COMBAT Communications Administrator issued a release welcoming the audit and pledging to make changes. The county also set up a webpage where people can make anonymous allegations of mismanagement of funds.

This is welcome, but as we pointed out in 2016, the problem is not merely that a few contracts may have been mishandled, but that there is scant evidence this anti-crime tax is doing anything to reduce crime. Kansas City is in the midst of a years-long, nation-leading spike in homicides. Can anyone argue that if the COMBAT program were suspended entirely that anything would change? The onus is on the county to make its case, and if it cannot, the program should be dismantled.

The post Missouri Auditor Blasts Jackson County Anti-Crime Program appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

As I have noted previously, Riverview Gardens is among the lowest-spending districts in the Saint Louis area and Normandy is about average.  Kansas City, on the other hand, spends considerably more than most of the other school districts in the area (see below). Kansas City spends nearly $13,000 per pupil. Save for the Center School District, this is more than $1,400 above what Grandview and other neighboring districts spend. The neighboring Independence School District spends $3,800 less. This means that when students leave the Kansas City School District, in most cases, it will generate a cost savings.

Let’s assume that a quarter of Kansas City’s 15,500 students apply to transfer. If those students are spread out evenly among the 11 other districts above, the district would have to pay about $39 million in tuition. This may seem like a lot, but the district is currently spending more than $50 million on that quarter of students. If the district could make appropriate budgetary cuts, it could actually come out ahead. More importantly, the students will come out ahead because they now have the option to attend higher-performing schools.

The post Could Kansas City Benefit From Student Transfers? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The case came before the Court because the Independence School District decided to unilaterally modify the contract it had reached in collaboration with teachers’ union representatives. The district reasoned that, because teachers were specifically excluded from statutes providing a framework for collective bargaining with public-sector employees, the agreement with the teachers’ unions was not binding — because it had been reached through a sort of collective bargaining process. The Supreme Court disagreed. Even though previous decisions by the Court had limited the scope of the Constitution’s collective bargaining guarantees, the Court overturned those cases and held instead that all employees, including those in the public sector, are protected by the Constitution.

This win for the teachers’ unions has led to quite a conundrum across the state, which is discussed by a story in today’s Springfield News-Leader. In the decision’s aftermath, union officials called for legislators to pass a statute that would govern the collective bargaining process for teachers. Interestingly, however, the Missouri NEA and the MTSA (each of which represent a substantial percentage of teachers in many districts throughout the state) have very different ideas about what would make the best framework. The MNEA, which is the larger organization, wants a winner-takes-all solution in which a majority vote would decide on one union to handle representation for all of a district’s teachers. The MTSA, on the other hand, wants to establish negotiating committees that would allow for proportional representation from both unions. This sort of framework would assure MTSA teachers that their representatives had a seat at the negotiating table, even if a majority of teachers in the district were represented by the MNEA. In short, the teachers’ unions got what they asked for, and now they are each lobbying the state to mediate the resulting conflict.

This situation echoes the broader problem in our union-driven education system: The unions’ proposals call for the legislature to create a one-size-fits-all approach that will bind all of the state’s school districts and teachers. While a state-mandated approach undoubtedly serves the interests of the unions themselves, the idea is really pretty silly. Let the teachers sort out for themselves how to handle bargaining!

Imagine a hypothetical school district that employs 100 teachers, of whom 80 belong to the MNEA, 15 belong to MTSA, and five would prefer to negotiate their own contracts. Why couldn’t the district reach one agreement that would cover MNEA teachers, another that would cover MTSA teachers, and separate contracts to cover the five independents? Under this model, teachers would have a choice about which deal served them best — a union negotiation or an independent contract. If members of one union became disillusioned with their representation, they would have the option of switching to the other union or going independent, a model that would empower individual teachers. I think that’s a very good thing!

The unions, of course, would be appalled by this suggestion. A union wields power by presenting a united front on behalf of all the members of a profession, thus assuring that when potential employers don’t meet the union’s demands, no work will be done. Unions can only maintain this power by ensuring that workers will not seek independent employment agreements that deviate from the union’s demands. Under ideal circumstances, unions should secure cooperation from workers only through persuasion — convincing them that remaining in step with union goals is in their best interest. Unfortunately, however, unions sometimes turn to coercive threats when persuasion proves unsuccessful.

Tying back to the news story, one way to avoid this sort of risky intimidation — while achieving similar results — is for the unions to seek legislation that uses the power of the state to entrench their status and curtail dissent. It should be obvious, however, that it is not appropriate for the unions to use the legislature to accomplish what their reasoning cannot. Teachers (and school districts!) should be free to approach the bargaining table on their own terms, not on terms dictated to them by the unions or the legislature.

The post Cooperation, Not Legislation appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

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Missouri has long had a very good rule about political annexations — residents of both the new and old areas have to approve it. Apparently, though, the Legislature last session made a small change to the statutes, related to the exact situation we have here. I doubt this was a coincidence, but so it goes. Poo-Tee-Weet. My name is David Stokes. Whoo … came unstuck there, but I’m back now.

The law now states that in votes such as this, which involve unaccredited or provisionally accredited school districts, Kansas City is the latter — only the residents of the area seeking to move need a vote of 50 percent plus 1 to make the change. Opponents are seeking every angle to fight it, including the amazing instance of a government employee union leader warning about higher taxes:

Judy Morgan, president of the Kansas City teachers union […] criticized what she said would be a disruption of the schools that is largely driven by property owners hoping to improve the value of their property. She also noted that the Independence School District, which taxes property at a rate of $5.08 per $100 assessed valuation compared with Kansas City’s rate of $4.95, has a higher school levy than the Independence district. “Taxes would go up,” she said.

She’s probably right in the short term. In the long run, the increase in total district population and likely increase in property values for the area that moves should allow the Independence tax rate to decrease significantly. But if the residents of the area that are seeking to change really care about education first, as I believe they do, they will pass this initiative next month, as I believe they will. And probably by a fairly wide margin. This is nothing more than citizens using the democratic process to improve their lives. I wish them success.

The post School Choice in Kansas City, the Old-Fashioned Way appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Residents of Independence and Sugar Creek (two Kansas City suburbs), whose homes are zoned to Kansas City public schools, believe that they should be “rezoned” to the Independence School District instead. They argue that Kansas City’s poor public education track record is responsible for falling property values and depressed economic growth within their communities.

It’s easy to see why residents would rather be zoned to the Independence School District. According to data collected by Standard and Poor’s School Evaluation Services, more than twice as many students in the Independence School district received “proficient” scores on their Missouri MAP exit scores than did Kansas City students, despite the fact that the Independence School district spent nearly $2,500 less per student (in state tax dollars). Who wouldn’t want to switch to a district that is both more effective and less expensive?

How will districts ever improve if they remain insulated from competition? If individual schools were allowed to “jump ship,” perhaps school districts would have an incentive to improve performance, rather than tolerating decline.

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