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By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BILLS
House Bill 2030 (Jenee' Lowe) and Senate Bill 1115 (Joan Bray) would establish a good collective bargaining law for the roughly 400,000 public sector employees working in Missouri. Missouri’s public sector employees have reclaimed their constitutional bargaining rights the Missouri Supreme Court ruling on May 29, 2007. Missouri NEA strongly supports both bills.

Public education is an important portion of public sector employment. Collective bargaining in schools is about working together to provide great public schools for every student.

Important decisions affecting our schools are best made at the local level. Nothing is more “local” than a collective bargaining process that gives a voice to the educators who work most closely with students.

Collective bargaining is a fair process that promotes shared decision making and results in agreements that are binding for both educators and school boards. The Supreme Court’s decision allows public school employees the same rights as everybody else. Collective bargaining creates a clear, fair process for educators to engage in decision making with employers and reach agreements that are legally binding.

Local educators are the experts on what students need and how to attract and retain highly qualified teachers. Collective bargaining directly involves employees who work with children everyday in mutual problem solving with school district administrators.

MNEA will need a strong effort from members throughout the session to educate Missouri legislators that collective bargaining in schools is about working together to provide great public schools for every student.

MSTA ANTI-BARGAINING BILL FOR TEACHERS
The House Special Committee on General Laws voted House Bill 2059 (Kevin Wilson) “do pass” on Apr. 1. The Senate Education Committee voted out Senate Committee Substitute for S.B. 1158 (Rob Mayer) on Apr. 2. Missouri NEA strongly opposes both bills. The bills discriminate against teachers by treating them unfairly, denying them their right to select a single representative with a legal duty to represent all employees.

An effective bargaining process must have a unified employee voice. Piecing a bargaining team together from various groups builds a communications gap into the process and leaves teachers scrambling for a cohesive voice. The bills would force teachers to form a representative council, an extra layer of bureaucracy, which would make reaching agreement difficult.

The bills even allow the school board to modify the “agreement” without consulting the council, thus making it unlikely that districts and employees would actually construct binding agreements.

The bills would make collective bargaining a more difficult and less effective process for teachers than for other employees, and it leaves them, once again, with fewer rights than other public employees. Unlike an elected representative, whose right to represent employees can be removed if it fails to represent them fairly, the council cannot be held accountable, disbanded or replaced with an elected representative organization, even if the council is totally dysfunctional.

Of the 35 states where teachers bargain collectively, no state uses a process similar to the one proposed in these bills. The bargaining model that has proven effective over time in state-after-state is the exclusive representation model. In a historic decision in May 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court restored the right of all public employees (including teachers) to bargain collectively with employers. MSTA fought against collective bargaining for years and filed a brief last year urging the Supreme Court to deny teachers a voice in the collective bargaining process,

Missouri NEA believes every child has the basic right to attend a great public school, and nothing should dilute the voice of teachers in helping get that accomplished.

SPECIAL EDUCATION VOUCHER
The Missouri House did not debate House Bill 1886 (Dwight Scharnhorst) this week. H.B. 1886 was incorporated into House Committee Substitute for H.B.s 2040 and 2430 (Rod Jetton) and is expected to be taken up for debate by the House next week. The Senate debated a similar bill last week, Senate Bill 993 (Jason Crowell), but the bill did not come to a vote.

The bills would create an 80 percent tax credit for donations to private scholarship funds providing payments for disabled students to attend private or religious schools or out-of-district public schools. Also, the bills allow an unlimited total amount in tax credits for “contributions” to scholarship funds but arbitrarily limits participation to 10 percent of disabled students.

The use of special education students to further the school privatization agenda is an emerging trend across the nation. As with school privatization efforts in previous years, these bills do nothing to fulfill the state’s primary duty: to establish and maintain quality public schools. In particular, the bills do nothing to build the capacity of public schools across the state to offer high quality programs to disabled students.

One sinister effect of the bills is to create a state-supported incentive for disabled students to enroll in nonpublic schools where they will forfeit their entitlement to district-funded Free and Appropriate Public Education determined by an Individualized Education Plan. This is especially troubling since many private schools lack the capacity to provide special education services and rely on local public schools to provide special education services for their disabled students. However, private school students do not have an IEP and have no entitlement to specific services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act nor any right to appeal any particular lack of special education service from a school district.

Another troubling feature of the bill is that the credits would reduce state revenues by nearly a like amount and force the state to forego real opportunities to help all public school students or to fund specific programs to help disabled students attending public schools. Missouri NEA strongly opposes any measure to transfer state funds to private, religious or home schools that are not accountable to the standards placed on public schools.

SPECIAL EDUCATION VOUCHER ADDED TO OMNIBUS EDUCATION BILL
The House Special Committee on Student Achievement heard House Bill 2430 (Jason Holsman) and then voted out a House Committee Substitute for H.B.s 2040 and 2430. The original H.B. 2430 creates a complex system of state bonus pay for teachers, including initial signing bonuses, bonuses based on attaining district accreditation, bonuses based on number of years of service and voluntary “merit” bonuses. Eligibility for the various bonuses varies, depending on a district’s size and accreditation status. The “merit” bonuses are provided for employees at a qualifying school site rather than to individual teachers.

H.B. 2040 (Rod Jetton) is the MSTA statewide salary schedule bill. The HCS/H.B.s 2040 and 2430 abandons the statewide salary schedule language and includes bonus and “merit” pay provisions similar to the original H.B. 2430 and adds many provisions including:

• H.B. 1886 (Dwight Scharnhorst) - special education tax credit voucher
• H.B. 1722 (Maynard Wallace) - school safety
• S.B. 1066 (Luann Ridgeway) - oversight of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education professional development funds
• S.B. 726 (Jeff Smith) - Preschool Plus program
• H.B. 2489 (Doug Funderburk) - administrator salary reporting
• H.B. 2181 (Jane Cunningham) - allows differential pay
• H.B. 1477 (Jane Cunningham) - restricts political contributions by teacher organizations
• H.B. 1544 (Timothy Jones) - educational materials for the blind

Missouri NEA strongly opposes the HCS due to the inclusion of several provisions, especially H.B. 1886 (special education voucher), H.B. 2181 (differential pay) and H.B. 1477 (restricting political contributions by teachers).

URBAN TAX CREDIT VOUCHER
The House Special Committee on Urban Education Reform heard House Bill 2207 (Ted Hoskins) on Apr. 1. H.B. 2207 is the newest version of the urban tax credit voucher bill. This year, the bill is known as the “HCH” scholarship program, where HCH stands for the initials of the cosponsors: (Ted) Hoskins, (Jane) Cunningham and (Rodney) Hubbard. Missouri NEA testified in opposition. After the hearing, the committee voted the bill “do pass.”

The bill allows up to $20 million per year in tax credits for “contributions” to scholarship funds to be used to fund private and religious school tuition payments primarily for low-income students in St. Louis City and Kansas City. As in previous years, this bill does nothing to fulfill the state’s primary duty: to establish and maintain quality public schools. The credits would reduce state revenues by a like amount, reduce funds for the affected public schools and force the state to forego real opportunities to help all public school students or to fund specific programs to help struggling students in urban public schools, such as early childhood education or after school programs. Missouri NEA strongly opposes any measure to transfer state funds to private, religious or home schools that are not accountable to the standards placed on public schools.

ABCTE
The House Special Committee on Student Achievement voted Senate Bill 1066 (Luann Ridgeway) “do pass” on Mar. 31. The bill requires the State Board of Education to certify teachers passing the test established by the American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence. Missouri NEA opposes the bill. The bill will probably be taken up on the House floor next week.

The bill passed the Senate after several additional changes were negotiated by Sen. Joan Bray and Sen. Ridgeway, but these changes were not incorporated in the Senate version of the bill, since the Senate had already closed off the amendment process before the negotiations. Sen. Ridgeway agreed that, if the bill was allowed to proceed to a vote, she would seek to have those improvements incorporated in the House: requiring successful teaching evaluations each year to maintain the certificate, using a state-approved district mentoring program in preference to an ABCTE mentoring program and requiring all ABCTE certified teachers to pass the Praxis II exam on pedagogy to maintain their certificate. However, the changes were not adopted in the House committee.

It now appears that the proponents of the bill will seek to have the bill adopted by the House without changes, including the ABCTE-related changes supported by the bill’s sponsor, since that would force the bill to come back to the Senate for its concurrence.

Senate Amendment 4 (Maida Coleman) provides that the commissioner of education must get the approval of the Joint Committee on Education for the expenditures of the $18 million allocated annually to address statewide areas of critical need. This amendment has raised justifiable concern from several education groups. Ironically, this opposition makes it less likely that the ABCTE changes agreed to by Sens. Ridgeway and Bray will be adopted on the House side, since those changes would force the bill to, again,be approved by the Senate. Opposition by education groups to S.A. 4 would make passage by the Senate difficult, unless the language of S.A. 4 is changed or deleted, but such a change would create opposition on the part of the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Coleman, and also threatens the bill’s passage. This leaves the unfortunate prospect that the bill will be taken up and adopted by the House without several of the safeguards and improvements to the ABCTE mandate that were negotiated on the Senate side.

Missouri NEA remains concerned that the bill would grant a full professional certificate to an ABCTE teacher, rather than an alternative certificate which allows a teacher to be employed on a renewable basis in an employing district upon maintaining successful teaching evaluations and leading to a professional certificate after passing the Praxis test and demonstrating teaching competencies. The state board should retain authority to supervise and revise any teaching certification. Missouri NEA continues to recommend that all alternatively certified teachers must pass the Praxis II exam and complete a course of study that covers all key teaching competencies before being given a full professional teaching certificate.

Missouri NEA also supports establishing state teaching standards, so that state policy is clear on what teachers are supposed to know and be able to do, how those standards will be assessed and how mentoring, beginning teacher assistance programs and other professional development will help teachers meet those teaching standards.

PROPERTY TAX ROLLBACKS
The House Ways and Means Committee heard Senate Bill 711 (Michael Gibbons) on Apr. 3. The bill seeks to force school districts and other local governments to roll their tax rate back, upon reassessment, against the current tax rate, even if the district has previously approved a higher tax rate that is often called a “tax rate ceiling.” The change will limit growth in local revenues when reassessment causes significant increases in property values.

The House also gave final passage to House Joint Resolution 43 (Charles Portwood). The HJR enacts changes similar to S.B. 711 but by amending the Missouri Constitution. Missouri NEA believes that such constitutional changes are unneeded, since the issue can be addressed by legislation.

Local school property taxes are the largest single source of funding for Missouri’s public schools, and any proposal that affects the setting of tax rates and the collection of property taxes will have a significant impact on public schools. The reassessment process is a crude approximation to determining the true property value of each property which generally increases incrementally every year, just like the cost to educate a child. Missouri NEA will strive to ensure that any such legislation will allow school districts to maintain adequate and stable revenues from property taxes.

LEGISLATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY DODGE
The House gave final passage (Third Reading vote) to House Joint Resolution 41 (Jane Cunningham) on Apr. 3. The joint resolution, if passed by both chambers and approved by statewide vote, would prohibit a state court from instructing or ordering the state legislature or any local government to levy or increase taxes. The amendment would also prohibit any Missouri court from instructing or ordering the state or any local government on how to spend, allocate or budget fiscal resources.

The HJR is an obvious attempt to avoid accountability for the failure to meet the constitutional demand to adequately and equitably fund public education. As an alternative, MNEA calls on the General Assembly to promote legislative accountability and place on the statewide ballot a constitutional amendment requiring the legislature to annually declare whether public education and other constitutionally required services are adequately funded and providing that, if such services are determined to be inadequately funded, the inadequacy shall be presumed to be due to lack of state funding.

By continuing to pursue a strong, anti-tax policy, House leaders seem determined to ensure that the state lacks the resources to make the public investment Missourians expect and which the Constitution demands. This policy will permanently cripple the funding of K-12 and higher education, health care and other state-supported services and sentence Missouri to permanent, bottom-tier status in the nation. HJR 41 would undermine the fundamental balance of governmental powers and leave the people of Missouri with no legal recourse to hold the legislature accountable for failure to live up to its Constitutional obligations. Missouri NEA strongly opposes HJR 41.

SEATBELTS ON SCHOOL BUSES
The House Transportation Committee heard House Bill 1356 (Tim Flook) on Apr. 1. The bill requires new school buses to have shoulder harnesses and seat belts for all occupants. The bill also imposes a surcharge on all moving traffic violations and uses the funds to help districts buy buses with shoulder harnesses and seat belts.

Missouri NEA believes that any mandate for shoulder harnesses and seat belts on school buses should be accompanied by full state funding for any additional district costs and full immunity for districts and school employees for any student’s failure to use or to misuse a shoulder harness and seat belt. The fiscal note cost analysis and discussion indicates that the real cost to school districts will be considerably greater than the funding anticipated from the surcharge.

A+ SCHOOLS
The Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 846 (Scott Rupp) on Apr. 2. The bill makes several changes:

• allows A+ Schools Program reimbursements to be used at private technical schools, such as Ranken Tech;
• allows an unaccredited school district to participate in the A+ Schools Program, provided it meets all other requirements.; and
• extends funding for the Kids’ Chance Scholarship Fund from 2008 to 2018 and allows accrued interest to be used to fund the scholarships.

IMMIGRATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION
The Senate passed Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bills 858 et al. The bill contains several provisions relating to undocumented aliens. One provision in the bill bans all undocumented aliens from attending public institutions of higher education. Missouri NEA opposes this provision. MNEA believes that denial of education services is not a substitute for comprehensive immigration policy reform.

SENATE EDUCATION
The Senate Education Committee heard the following Senate Bills on Apr. 2:

1. S.B. 1170 (Rob Mayer) creates a program to allow loans to rebuild certain damaged school facilities.

2. S.B. 1017 (Rob Mayer) requires utility companies to report certain property located within school district boundaries to the school district.

The committee was also scheduled to hear S.B. 1191 (Luann Ridgeway) which would allow Clay County school boards to enter into agreements for financing of educational facilities, but the bill was not heard and the hearing will be rescheduled.

QUALITY RATING SYSTEM FOR EARLY CHILD CARE
The Senate Third Read and finally passed Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 726 (Charlie Shields) on Mar. 27. Missouri NEA strongly supports this effort to evaluate programs and provide parents with information that will improve the quality of early child care and education programs across the state. The bill also includes a scaled down version of S.B. 779 (Jeff Smith) which will expand the Missouri Preschool Project with an additional program to provide quality early child care to 1250 three- and four-year-olds living in low-income households in unaccredited and provisionally accredited school districts. Missouri NEA supports the amendment as an important effort to promote more universal access to quality early child care.

SCHOOL SAFETY
The House Third Read and finally passed H.B. 1722 (Maynard Wallace) on Mar. 31. The bill extends 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, allows school boards to commission certified law enforcement officers for local violations and certain crimes committed on school premises, at school activities or on buses and makes many other changes related to school safety. Missouri NEA generally supports the provisions in the bill and will work with the sponsor to ensure the bill is a positive step in support of safe schools.

PSRS
The Senate Third Read and finally passed Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bills 1153, 1154, 1155, 1156 (Jason Crowell). The bill requested by the Board of Trustees of the Public School Retirement System makes many technical changes plus the following changes:

• prevents nonprofit educational associations or organizations from having their employees join PSRS or PEERS after June 30, 2009;
• allows teachers and school retirement systems to indemnify and protect trustees and employees; and
• allows the PSRS Board to combine funds for teacher and school employee retirement systems for investment purposes only.

STANDARDS FOR PETITION CIRCULATORS
The Senate Financial, Governmental Organization & Elections Committee heard House Bill 1763 (Mike Parson) on Mar. 31. The bill would enact additional standards for petition circulators. The bill prohibits paying signature gatherers by the signature, a practice that has been shown to lead to fraudulent practices. The bill also requires signature collectors to be Missouri residents, prohibits any person convicted of forgery from collecting signatures and increases penalties for signing false names on petitions.

Missouri NEA supports the effort of H.B. 1763 and similar bills to reduce fraud in the signature-gathering process for initiative petitions. These efforts will help make sure that the initiative process is truly reflective of issues of concern to Missourians and not merely issues of concern to well-heeled, out-of-state interest groups willing to spend millions of dollars and engage in questionable or fraudulent practices to get an issue on the ballot in Missouri.

CAPITOL ACTION DAYS
Capitol Action Days continued on Apr. 2 with MNEA-R members visiting the Capitol. A series of Capitol Action Days throughout most of the session will allow planned, face-to-face contact with legislators throughout the session. Capitol Action Days will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays continuing through the first week of May. Your MNEA calendar includes the dates that the MNEA Board of Directors selected for your governance district.

If you are not able to attend on these designated days, feel free to contact Otto Fajen (otto.fajen@mnea.org) to arrange to attend a different Capitol Action Day. Each Capitol Action Day will start with a briefing at 10:00 a.m. to provide you with the most up-to-date information.

FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT BILLS
To find out more about legislation this session, go to: http://www.mnea.org/gr/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/billcentral.aspx. 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.

Legislative Update 2008
Missouri National Education Association
1810 East Elm Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101-4174
(573) 634-3202 or (800) 392-0236

Chris Guinther , President
Ben Simmons, Executive Director
DeeAnn Aull, Director of Programs and P.R.
Leila Medley, Political Director
Otto Fajen, Legislative Director
Judy Glover, Secretary