Armed and ready
MNEA fends off public education foes.

Missouri NEA’s Legislative Platform contains a proactive agenda that strengthens public education and public educators for the benefit of Missouri’s children. MNEA also continues to lead the fight to defeat the many harmful proposals pushed by out-of-state extremist groups and other opponents of public education.

School formula
MNEA supports common sense, data-driven revisions to the state’s school funding formula.

1. The Augenblick adequacy study shows that Missouri’s current formula was more than $900 million short of adequate funding when it was fully funded.

2. The current formula itself is now nearly $800 million underfunded.

3. The newly enacted Senate Bill 287 formula reduces funding to about $200 million below the full funding cost of the current formula.

4. The new formula base level funding and at-risk aid should be raised to research-based figures, and the new formula should be funded within two years.

5. The state’s constitutional funding requirement for public schools should be increased to 35 percent of general revenue.

Tax-credit vouchers
MNEA opposes the out-of-state extreme agenda to impose tax-credit vouchers, also known as “charitable scholarships.”

1. House Bill 639 (2005) would have diverted up to $40 million per year from public schools to support vouchers to private, religious and home schools. That’s about $450 less in state funds for each school employee in the state.

2. Tax-credit vouchers transfer public funds to private and religious schools without public accountability for those funds.

3. Tax-credit vouchers give public funds to exclusive private schools that have no obligation to serve all students.

65 percent mandate
MNEA also opposes the 65 percent mandate initiated by out-of-state interest groups and now supported by Gov. Matt Blunt. (See "Lawmakers attempt to deceive taxpayers with 65 percent solution")

1. This new mandate doesn’t increase school funding by one dime.

2. Schools will be required to cut vital school services that help children come to school healthy and ready to learn.

3. This one-size-fits-all approach will require the termination of support personnel, including counselors, librarians, nurses, janitors, cooks and bus drivers.

Tax reform
MNEA supports comprehensive tax reform.

1. Missouri’s outdated tax code should be modernized.

2. Missouri’s taxes should be fair for all taxpayers.

3. Missouri’s taxes should raise enough revenue to meet Missouri’s needs for K–12 and higher education and other vital services.

4. Improved corporate accountability will ensure that tax incentives are used responsibly.

Revise “Hancock” limits
MNEA supports responsible revisions to Missouri’s state revenue limitations (the “Hancock” limit) that help the state save a portion of revenues in high-growth years for budget stabilization purposes in low-growth or recession years.

TABOR (State spending cap)
MNEA strongly opposes the spending limitation known as TABOR, Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

1. TABOR is a proven failure in Colorado, where voters recently suspended the measure for five years due to the harmful effects the limit had on education and other services.

2. TABOR would force further cuts in K–12 and higher education and healthcare.

3. TABOR limits spending increases to Consumer Price Index growth plus population growth.

4. State spending for the last three years would have violated TABOR.

Early Childhood Education
MNEA supports statewide universal access to quality pre-kindergarten instructional programs.

1. Early childhood education is a proven program that works to reduce achievement gaps and promote success for all students.

2. All pre-kindergarten teachers should be properly certified, compensated on the regular teachers’ salary schedule and have access to the tenure and due process rights of other teachers.

Access to quality higher education
MNEA supports adequate and equitable funding for all state community colleges, technical colleges and four-year institutions.

1. State funding for higher education institutions has been cut significantly in the last few years.

2. Students face large tuition increases at our state universities, colleges and community colleges.

3. If the K–12 school-funding lawsuit calls for increased spending and the legislature fails to increase revenues, higher-education funding is certain to see devastating budget cuts.

Due process
MNEA supports substantive due process rights for all education employees.

1. Real due process protects education employees from potentially arbitrary and capricious hiring and firing decisions.

2. Due process ensures a fair hearing on an employee’s employment status, made by an impartial hearing officer.

Collective bargaining
MNEA supports collective bargaining rights for all education employees.

1. Teachers and other employees are better able to ensure they have adequate resources in schools and classrooms when they have an equal voice in establishing their working conditions through collective bargaining.

2. Retention of beginning teachers would increase significantly if teachers were granted the respect provided by a good collective bargaining law.

3. Bargaining grants districts the power to explore innovative compensation systems that develop, identify and reward accomplished teaching and help ensure all students have access to accomplished teachers.

Merit pay
MNEA opposes merit pay and repeal of the salary schedule law.

1. Merit pay, based on student test scores, is a proven failure in districts across the country.

2. Merit pay leads to perceived subjectivity of the compensation process.

3. Merit pay represents a narrow focus on student outcomes. This focus sacrifices the supportive environment of teacher mentoring and collaboration and creates stronger incentives to teach to standardized tests.

School retirement
MNEA supports a strong, equitable retirement system for all education employees.

1. School officials and extreme interest groups are both seeking to reduce liabilities of PSRS as contribution rates increase from 10.5 percent to as much as 14.5 percent.

2. Recent proposals in other states seek to take control of the school retirement system from current and retired members.

3. School boards seek an increase in the number of service years for full retirement to lower benefits and save the system money.

4. Financial companies want to profit by replacing the current system with private accounts that discriminate against women, leave all employees at greater risk and provide extra commissions for brokers ?and fund managers.

Silence the students
MNEA opposes efforts to silence the voices of citizens, students and school district employees regarding the adequacy and equity of school funding.

1. Senate Joint Resolution 18 would prevent citizens, students and school districts from holding the legislature accountable in court for adequately and equitably funding public schools.

2. The proposal eliminates Missouri’s system of checks and balances on the state’s main duty: funding public schools.

3. Lack of revenue, the school funding lawsuit, anti-tax attitudes and tax limitations lead to this desperate proposal to avoid responsibility for providing public education.

Teacher standards and ABCTE
MNEA opposes a state mandate for recognition of certification as defined by the American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence.

1. House Bill 145 would have created a state mandate for ABCTE certification, but the bill was defeated.

2. ABCTE is a product of the extremist opponents of public education, and it lowers teacher quality standards.
   3. ABCTE is cleverly linked to NCLB-generated “quality” shortages.

3. With a four-year degree, you’re just a background check, $500 and two multiple-choice tests away from being “highly qualified.”

Intelligent design
MNEA opposes any state mandate to require schools to teach “intelligent design” in science classes.

1. Recent legislation would require schools to teach intelligent design in science.

2. The bill intrudes on local district control of instruction.

3. Intelligent design is not a scientific theory and doesn’t belong in science curricula.

Virtual schools
MNEA supports proactive legislation to guide the development of distance learning and virtual schools in ways that support greater student achievement.

1. Missouri already uses distance learning extensively in public schools.

2. For-profit education companies seek to use virtual technology to replace public school instruction and take public funds.

3. Proactive legislation will set high standards for virtual education, including adequate student/teacher contact time, properly qualified teachers, public accountability and equitable access.

by Otto Fajen
MNEA legislative director