Legislature passes formula fix without funds

Missouri NEA fought throughout the session for its priorities for children and public education. Hundreds of members supported the Association’s efforts by coming to the State Capitol, calling legislators or sending e-mails in response to legislative-action alerts. A new feature this session was the daily Legislative Update provided by e-mail to more than 1,000 MNEA members and other education stakeholders.

Funding a better future for public education and all Missourians
MNEA urged the General Assembly to address the structural budget deficit and ensure adequate funding to provide a better future for public education and other vital public services while protecting those resources from diversion away from public education.

The formula is underfunded by at least $610 million this year, and the underfunding will likely increase next year. The state is being sued, in an action supported by MNEA, for inadequate and inequitable funding of public schools. The trial is expected to begin after the session ends in May. Gov. Matt Blunt and legislative leaders maintained a strong anti-tax policy, ensuring that the shortage of revenue will continue and the current formula will remain underfunded next year as well.

Even more unfortunate, the failure to address the deficit in a proactive way forced the budget committees to slash funding for many important services, including health care for the working poor. These cuts will affect families and make it more difficult for many children to come to school ready to learn. These cuts may force many poor parents to quit working to retain health care. These decisions also affect the attitudes of children, both during school years and long beyond.

New formula slow to take over, may be blocked by court
After a session-long debate over formula options, the legislature passed Senate Bill 287. The bill contains a new formula that determines an “adequate” amount of money per pupil, provides some weight for at-risk, disabled and English-as-a-Second-Language students, allows a 15 percent regional cost of education factor and deducts local property revenues based on a presumed tax rate of $3.43. Compared to the current formula, high-tax-rate districts lose, while low-tax-rate districts win. MNEA urged adoption of amendments to maintain more adequate funding for districts with higher tax rates and especially for districts with high concentrations of students living in poverty. However, those amendments were not included in the bill. Please see the Week 18 MNEA Legislative Update for a more detailed explanation of Senate Bill 287 (www.mnea.org/publications/legislative/index.htm).

Senate Bill 287 will not go into effect until July 1, 2006. Because state revenues will continue to lag behind state needs, the formula will be slow to provide any funding increases. The bill phases in over seven years, and the roughly $100 million per year increase anticipated, if the plan is fully funded, will roughly hold state school aid appropriation even with inflation. Given the slow timetable for implementing the new formula, the court will probably intervene prior to the formula becoming effective.

Tax credit vouchers
The House debated House Bill 639 for several hours April 11 but did not bring the bill to a vote. The bill establishes a “scholarship charity” tax credit voucher aimed primarily at lower income students in provisional and unaccredited districts. Despite protests to the contrary by the bill’s proponents, the bill is a tax-credit voucher and moves public funds to private, religious and home schools by means of a tax credit. The tax credit removes up to $40 million in revenues that would otherwise accrue to the state’s General Revenue fund. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jane Cunningham, has a keen interest in obtaining passage for this legislation to please the out-of-state interest groups, such as All Children Matter. Rep. Cunningham recruited massive campaign funding into Missouri last year to support pro-voucher candidates. Several House members have reported receiving various threats from representatives of All Children Matter. After taking on several amendments drafted by MNEA staff, the bill failed.

Maintain fair and responsible compensation for staff
Salary schedules based on experience and professional training support high standards for teachers. They also allow teachers to focus on nurturing students and helping them to become good citizens, creative thinkers and independent learners. Opponents of public education sought passage of House Bill 539, a measure to allow salary increases based solely on an administrator’s subjective judgment or arbitrary salary incentives based on student test scores. Merit pay would sacrifice the supportive environment of teacher mentoring and collaboration and create stronger incentives to teach to standardized tests.

MNEA opposed the bill at every step along the way. Strong lobbying efforts from MNEA and its members defeated the proposal. The bill passed the House but did not reach a vote in the Senate. The language was also amended in the House version of Senate Bill 287, but, after strong opposition from MNEA, the language was stripped out in conference committee. The Association will continue to work to maintain the equity of salary schedules for Missouri’s teachers.

by Otto Fajen
MNEA legislative director