Publications
Menu Something Better Research Reports MNEA Action State Board Reports Leaders' Update Legislative Update

By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

SENATE MAY TAKE UP ABCTE MANDATE
Some version of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence mandate bill, Senate Committee Substitute for House Committee Substitute for House Bill 620 (Scott Muschany), is likely to come up for debate soon on the Senate floor. As noted below, similar language was incorporated into Conference Committee Substitute for HCS for SCS for Senate Bill 64 (Jack Goodman) in conference committee on May 8 and may be taken up by the Senate soon.

The mandate requires the State Board of Education to create another alternative teacher certification based on certification by the ABCTE. Missouri NEA strongly opposes the ABCTE mandate as harmful to high standards for teachers and, ultimately, harmful to ensuring great public schools for every child.

The SCS creates a four-year initial ABCTE professional certificate that actually leads directly to a permanent, career certificate. In contrast, the existing alternative certificate is temporary, renewable for up to three years and leads to the initial professional certificate.

The proposal also overrides the constitutional authority of the State Board of Education to supervise instruction in our public schools and ensure standards for teacher quality. The bill names ABCTE, a private entity, as a state-qualified certifying test, without state board approval now or oversight in the future. Missouri Advisory Council for the Certification of Educators, the state board’s certification study committee, has looked carefully at ABCTE and decided it was not right for Missouri.

The S.B. 64 version of the bill allows ABCTE certificates in all certification areas, including those prohibited for the current alternative certification due to the obvious need for extensive training in working with students. Those excluded areas are elementary education, early childhood education, early childhood special education, blind and visually impaired and deaf and hearing impaired.

The ABCTE certificates will be granted with no requirement to take any college course work in any teaching competencies. These competencies include critical teaching skills, such as: special education, behavioral management, measurement and evaluation, teaching methods and strategies, methods of teaching reading, developmental psychology and beginning teacher assistance. Current alternatively certified teachers must take nine college hours per year in those core teaching areas to renew their temporary certificate.

SCHOOL START DATE CONFERENCE REVISES, RETAINS ABCTE
The Conference Committee on House Committee Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 64 (Jack Goodman) met on May 8 to discuss the bill. The original S.B. 64 requires a hearing before early school start dates may be scheduled. The HCS included several other bills, including H.B. 620 (Scott Muschany), the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence mandate bill. Missouri NEA strongly opposed the HCS because of the ABCTE mandate language in the bill. Senate conferees are Sens. Goodman, Charles Shields, Robert Mayer, Jeff Smith and Yvonne Wilson. House conferees are Maynard Wallace, Jane Cunningham, Scott Muschany, Joe Aull and Sara Lampe. Sen. Wilson stood up for high teaching standards, making it clear that she would seek to keep the bill from a final vote if the ABCTE language remained as passed by the House.

The conferees debated the ABCTE provision at length, kept the provision in the proposed Conference Committee Substitute and adopted several amendments:

1. The ABCTE mandate will sunset after five years.
2. All ABCTE teachers must pass both parts of the Praxis II test to become certified.
3. One full year of student contact will be required for ABCTE teachers seeking elementary certification.

Conferees are expected to revisit the bill to add back in the permanent fixes for inclement weather make up days that were included in the HCS for SCS for S.B. 64 but taken out in the first conference committee report.

While the amendments address a few of the many concerns regarding the lowering of teaching standards, the Missouri NEA still opposes this ABCTE mandate. The bill still creates a mandate that overrides the state board’s authority to approve this certification and provide oversight over time. The bill also violates the fundamental construct of an alternative certification route by allowing teacher candidates who have not demonstrated ability to teach successfully in the employing district to be granted a full professional certificate. Alternative certification routes usually rely on an initial, temporary phase where the certificate depends on employment with a district, successful teaching in the district and a successful teaching evaluation from the district prior to obtaining full certification. Missouri NEA still opposes this mandate to lower standards.

OTHER PROVISIONS IN CCS FOR S.B. 64
The original bill requires a hearing before a school board may set an opening date more than 10 days prior to Labor Day and provides an exemption to the make-up day requirement based on inclement weather by increasing the length of the school day. The House Committee Substitute adds forgiveness for days lost due to inclement weather closing that exempts days eight through 12 from make-up requirement for the 2006-07 school year. For all years, the HCS also requires districts to build six make-up days into the school calendar and then make up the first six days lost plus half of the days lost over six days.

The Conference Committee Substitute retains one House amendment: House Amendment 1 for House Substitute Amendment 1 for House Amendment 4 (Brian Baker) allows students in provisional and unaccredited districts to enroll in the Missouri Virtual School and requires their district of residence to pay tuition.

The CCS removes the following House amendments from the bill:

1. H.A. 3 (Esther Haywood) allows districts to set the sixth birthday age admission date for first grade as late as October 31.
2. HSA 1 for H.A. 4 (Ed Robb) makes a number of technical changes in the provisions relating to educational services for children placed by the state in residential care facilities.
3. HSA 1 for H.A. 5 (Rebecca McClanahan) broadens the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence language to also include all “non-traditional” certifications that are approved by the State Board of Education.

CONFERENCE COMPLETED ON PSRS/PEERS PROVISIONS IN OMNIBUS RETIREMENT BILL
The Conference Committee on House Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 406 met on May 9. The bill relates to the Missouri State Employees Retirement System and includes several school retirement provisions. The omnibus bill is an attempt to keep the 25 and Out and 31+ years benefit factors moving through the process. The CCS for HCS for S.B. 406 includes a five-year extension for two key provisions of Public School Retirement System law: the “25-and-Out” option and the enhanced 2.55 percent benefit factor for retirees with 31 years of service or more. Both provisions will expire on June 30, 2008 if not re-enacted prior to that date. Missouri NEA strongly supports both of these provisions in the omnibus bill.

The conference committee stripped out the controversial additional benefit for already retired members over age 75 by July 1, 2008, providing an additional $5/month per year of service for PSRS retirees and $3/month per year of service for Public Education Employee Retirement System retirees. However, the conference committee bill still includes a limit on annual increases in final average salary used for calculating PSRS retirement benefits to no more than 10 percent, unless a member changes to a longer contract or reaches a higher level of educational attainment.

INCLEMENT WEATHER MAKEUP DAY BILL BECOMES LAW
Language to provide forgiveness for days missed due to inclement weather was signed into law by Gov. Matt Blunt on May 3. The Conference Committee Report on Senate Bill 376 (John Griesheimer) was adopted by both chambers on May 1.

S.B. 376 offers blanket, statewide forgiveness from make up of any days missed during the period from Jan. 11 to Jan. 22, 2007. The bill also waives the two-thirds make up requirement for the school calendar for next school year. This revised language for S.B. 376 appears to be the language destined to be enacted and signed into law by the governor.

The broader question remains as to whether the legislature will adopt more comprehensive long term requirements regarding school calendars and make up days, such as in House Committee Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for S.B. 64 (Jack Goodman). S.B. 64 has been passed by the House and is now in conference, where the more comprehensive school calendar provisions were stripped out of the first conference committee report, but will apparently be put back into a revised conference committee report.

BUDGET BILLS PASSED
The House and Senate took up and passed House Bills 1 through 9 (Allen Icet) on May 9. The remaining budget bills, H.B.s 10 to 13, were passed on May 10, one day prior to the constitutional deadline of May 11.

Funding for K-12 education, higher education and other services such as health care is already inadequate to meet the real needs of Missourians. Missouri NEA continues to advocate for comprehensive tax reform that will produce adequate revenues for public education and other vital services and allow adoption of a budget that truly meets the needs of Missouri’s citizens.

SENATE COMPLETES DEBATE ON OMNIBUS EDUCATION BILL, FINAL VOTE REMAINS
House Bill 265 (Jane Cunningham) was a minor bill requested by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to bring state special education law into compliance with federal requirements. The bill was knocked off the consent calendar in the Senate and, thus, subject to amendment. The bill was taken up on May 1, and a sort of feeding frenzy of amending followed. That feeding frenzy continued on May 7 with the addition of the many amendments, but the bill did not reach a final vote.

On May 9, Sen. Scott Rupp offered a 148-page floor substitute that contains 64 sections of law, including many of the provisions previously adopted by amendment to the bill. After lengthy debate, the Senate Substitute was adopted.

The substitute bill includes many provisions originally sponsored by Sen. Jeff Smith and affecting unaccredited and provisionally accredited districts, including: mandatory teacher testing on content, open enrollment in the Missouri Virtual Public School, differential and so-called “merit pay,” mandatory student testing every six weeks and bonus pay in schools with high test scores. The S.S. also includes Sen. Victor Callahan’s language changing the standards and procedures for school district boundary change elections.

The Missouri NEA is strongly opposed to many of the provisions and opposes passage of the bill. The strongest concerns lie with the differential and so-called “merit pay” provisions and the mandatory experienced teacher content knowledge testing. Both of those provisions apply in unaccredited and provisionally accredited districts. Also of particular concern is the amendment to remove Missouri School Improvement Program standards for librarian staff, counselor staff or vocational education.

Because of the cost of the many added provisions, the bill was referred to the Senate Governmental Accountability Committee. The committee voted on the bill twice on May 10. The vote failed on the first try, but later in the day, the vote was reconsidered, and the bill voted out. Apparently, strong pressure from House leaders on other key issues created enough pressure to get the committee to vote the bill out. The bill may now be taken up for Third Reading and final passage without further debate.

The floor substitute also contains:

1. Much of H.B. 469 (Maynard Wallace) to extend employee immunity to all school board policies, not just the discipline policy. The bill also broadens the reporting of acts of school violence under the Safe Schools Act.
2. S.B. 137 to allow retired employees to work for up to two years at less than full time in a “shortage” position.
3. S.B. 112 to repeal the sunset clause on the First Steps early childhood program and other provisions of early childhood special education law.
4. S.B. 435 to require school instructional videos to be closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
5. S.B. 646 to add cyber-bullying and electronic bullying to the current law requiring a school district to adopt a policy on bullying.
6. H.B. 267 to grant districts authority to identify a designee to bind the school district in a settlement agreement reached during the resolution session regarding a special education placement.
7. Sen. Michael Gibbons’ amendment which clarifies that a district’s special education pupil count shall include nonpublic school students being provided special education services by the district under the requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
8. A provision to allow students in provisional and unaccredited districts to enroll in the Missouri Virtual School and to require their district of residence to pay tuition.
9. A provision to require the State Board of Education to report on the factors considered in not declaring a low scoring district as “unaccredited.”
10. A provision to require drug testing on school construction projects.
11. A provision to require the Transitional School Board in St. Louis City to establish a pilot program of “mega-looping” where students stay with the same teacher for multiple years.
12. S.B. 244 to extend the 25 and Out and 2.55 percent factor for 31+ years of service school retirement provisions.
13. S.B. 161 to enact an early child care quality ratings system.
14. S.B. 64 requiring a hearing prior to setting a school start date more than 10 days before Labor Day.
15. A provision to increase the maximum contribution to a Missouri MOST college savings plan to $8,000 per taxpayer or $16,000 for married individuals filing jointly.
16. A provision to allow the St. Louis school retirement system board to increase benefits provided that the contribution rate will not increase.

Two additional provisions were added by floor amendment to the S.S.:

1. S.A. 5 (Matt Bartle) removes Missouri School Improvement Program standards for librarian staff, counselor staff or vocational education.
2. S.A. 7 (Harry Kennedy) creates a grant program of up to $9 million per year for safety of school children. The competitive grants would be available to public, private and parochial schools based on a showing of the greatest need for assistance along with a detailed plan for how the grant funds will be spent.

SENATE COMMITTEE GUTS, PASSES “INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY” MANDATE
The Senate Education Committee met on May 9 and adopted a Senate Committee Substitute for House Bill 213 (Jane Cunningham). The SCS was offered by Sen. Norma Champion and completely removes the term “intellectual diversity” from the bill, leaving a requirement that the public colleges and universities document their procedures to protect “student academic freedom.” The SCS was turned in to the floor on May 10 and will likely be taken up at some point before the end of session.

The House version of the bill defines “intellectual diversity” for reporting purposes at public higher education institutions. The House bill adds a dozen state-level mandates regarding bureaucratic requirements for addressing “intellectual diversity.”

Missouri NEA opposes this additional layer of bureaucracy and unneeded intrusion on local control of our public higher education institutions. The Association strongly opposes the rigid mandate in the House version to promote “intellectual diversity” and undermine the cardinal value of academe: the pursuit of truth. This proposal is akin to state mandates for “intelligent design” in science instruction, where the proposals mandate presentation of “diverse” views on all subjects, even those where the pursuit of truth has led to the practical certainty of answers to particular academic questions.

These mandates do not serve an academic purpose; rather, they serve a political agenda to promote controversy at all costs and the politicization of educational programs. A mandate to promote “intellectual diversity” undermines the effort to hire the most qualified applicants for faculty positions, since it creates the expectation that hiring committees will pry into the personal lives and ideological viewpoints of applicants and give those factors weight in the hiring process. This undermines an institution’s pursuit of excellence and, instead, promotes controversy and politics in the hiring process.

HOUSE PENSION TAX CUT BILL TRULY AGREED TO
The House passed Senate Substitute #2 for Senate Committee Substitute for House Committee Substitute for House Bills 444 et al. on May 11 by a vote of 133-11. The Senate had passed the bill earlier in the week on May 8 by a vote of 28-5. S.S. #2 offers a six-year phase in elimination of state income tax on Social Security and other public pensions, up to the same limits established under federal regulation for Social Security, but only for taxpayers over 62 years of age. The pension income tax exemption is capped at an income level of $85,000 for single taxpayers and $100,000 for combined returns.

The SCS version of the bill phased in a state income tax exemption for social security benefits only over the course of six years. This would have resulted in a loss of nearly $25 million per year in state general revenues, with a final impact of over $125 million per year once fully phased in. The S.S. version is likely to have a significantly greater long-term cost to state revenues, perhaps in excess of $150 million, and thus a larger reduction in state services over the long term, due to the expanded exemptions in the bill.

Missouri NEA believes taxes should be fair, adequate and sustainable. The Social Security tax cut bills violate each of these three principles. Accordingly, Missouri NEA opposed S.S. for SCS for HCS for H.B. 444. Since Social Security income is already exempted from taxation for many low-income people under federal rules, low-income seniors who rely heavily on Social Security payments will not pay lower taxes under these bills. Most of the total reduction in tax payments will go to wealthier seniors.

Overall, this is a regressive change and undermines tax fairness. Worse, the permanent tax cut will significantly reduce state revenues and force more cuts in vital services as the tax cut is phased in.

HOUSE REVERSES COURSE, PASSES HUGE BUSINESS TAX BREAK BILL
The impact of the tax cuts in House Bill 444 will be amplified by the recent passage of the Senate Substitute for H.B. 327 (Ron Richard) by the House on May 10. The bill expands tax breaks for businesses by more than $100 million annually. After efforts to reach a compromise version failed in conference, the House on Thursday reversed its previous position and simply accepted the gigantic version passed by the Senate. The Senate had loaded up the bill with numerous other tax breaks, some of which they didn't even expect to survive in the bill's final, conference version. Missouri NEA opposes these huge tax giveaways that will ultimately lead to reduced state revenues and force further cuts in vital public services, including education.

MOHELA BILL TRULY AGREED TO
The House passed Senate Substitute # 6 for Senate Committee Substitute for S.B. 389 (Gary Nodler) on May 7. The bill is now Truly Agreed To and will be submitted to the governor for his signature. S.B. 389 contains many provisions relating to higher education, including the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority asset sale. The bill was perfected by the Senate two weeks ago after the filibuster on the bill was broken by the rare tactical move known as moving the “previous question.” When the filibuster was ended by force, the bill’s sponsor Gary Nodler offered a new substitute that removed $46 million in funding for projects at institutions in the districts of the senators who continued the filibuster: Chuck Graham and Jolie Justus.

The bill contains many provisions relating to higher education, but the most notable and controversial portion addresses the sale of loan assets of MOHELA and the use of such proceeds for capital projects at various public colleges and universities. The bill also contains language that caps college tuition increases to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index unless a waiver is obtained from the Coordinating Board for Higher Education. Missouri NEA continues to have strong concerns regarding the impact of the tuition caps on the quality of programs and the effect of the MOHELA asset sale on the ability of that entity to fulfill its core mission of providing financial assistance to Missouri students.

HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARS MSHSAA BILL
The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee met on May 8 to hear House Bill 1232 (Jane Cunningham). The bill would allow the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, at the discretion of the State Board of Education, to have authority over public school extracurricular competitive activities. Under the bill, no public school could participate in an association that regulates these activities unless the association submits its rules and regulations to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which may request the department's recommendations. The Missouri NEA opposes this bureaucratic intrusion on the operation of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, a non-governmental entity. As a non-governmental entity, MSHSAA’s rules should not be subject to the review of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a committee with oversight over the rules and proposed rules of all governmental entities whose rules have the full force and effect of law. Further, DESE should not be directly involved in regulating extracurricular activities of private and religious schools.

FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT BILLS
To find out more about legislation this session, go to:
http://www.mnea.org/capitol/legissues.htm

This page contains numerous links, including the NEA Legislative Action Center, which addresses key education issues at the federal level, and the Missouri NEA Legislative Action Center, which will address key education issues at the state level. This page also will contain links to legislative updates, the MNEA Legislative Platform, legislative priorities and other policy-related links.

To find information about a specific bill currently pending before the Missouri General Assembly, go to: http://www.house.mo.gov/jointsearch/

Type the bill number (example: HB1000) or sponsor name in the “search” box to find a link to the bill. This link will take you to a “home page” for the bill that provides bill text, bill summaries, fiscal notes and information on legislative action on the bill.

CAPITOL ACTION DAYS
May 9 was the last scheduled MNEA Capitol Action Day for this session. MNEA retired members made the trip to the Capitol on May 8-9. Capitol Action Days are a great chance to meet with legislators and discuss Missouri NEA’s priority issues and how to support great public schools for every child. The Association thanks the many members who came to the Capitol this session to advocate for policies that support great public schools for every child.

Legislative Update 2007
Missouri National Education Association
1810 East Elm Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101-4174
(573) 634-3202 or (800) 392-0236

Greg Jung, President
Ben Simmons, Executive Director
DeeAnn Aull, Director of Programs and Public Relations
Leila Medley, Political Director
Otto Fajen, Legislative Director
Judy Glover, Secretary